Bad at Good
by theAsh0
Summary: Even the best laid plans go awry. What about the worst? Zuko only ever wanted to do the right thing; still does. But now, the Avatar approves! So why is he still following Azula and burning villages? Au diverging after season 2. Of destiny, dragons… and big-ass water snakes.
1. Chapter 1

_**Title:**__** Bad at Good**_

_**Working Title:**__** Fire Hazard. **_

_**Summary:**_

_**Even the best laid plans go awry. What about the worst? Au diverging after season 2. Of destiny, dragons… and big-ass water snakes. **_

**Credit where the credit is due.**

**Special thanks to VickyVicarious for planning help.**

**Special thanks to Gift Of the Dragons for beta help**

**Premises: **

**Ba Sing Se has fallen as in canon and the Avatar is in retreat. The small change is that Aang did not appear all that dead, and so the hunt for him continues. Iroh has been arrested and sent home. When Zuko finds out about this, and the fact that his sister expects him to aid her chase for Aang, he disappears on her. Yet a little more than a week later, on a small road in an Earth-Kingdom forest, the following events take place…**

**.**

~.

**~~Az~~**

The boy in green stood facing down Azula's tank with only an ostrich-horse at his side.

He had stepped into their way, out from the surrounding shrubbery and into the middle of that dirt-packed earthen road. For a moment too long, Azula had looked down, fascinated; wondering if without direction her driver would simply plow on and run down boy and mount.

The driver did not, and her vehicle came to an abrupt screeching stop. Atop her perch halfway out the tank the princess had to brace herself. Someone cursed below -likely Mai, sour about the jostling. Another beat later, there was the loud clanging of metal-on-metal from behind as her hundred-soldier entourage dealt poorly with the sudden uncalled halt.

As dust cleared, the main gun-barrel was but inches removed from this road-barring upstart's face.

The boy hardly noticed the commotion. He raised his face from under messy black bangs to glance at the machine belatedly, then momentarily farther up to the Fire Princess atop that tank... And the lighting died from Azula's hands, for this boy in green was no mere boy in green at all.

A peasant's robes and shaggy short hair might blend him with the faceless masses, but that lizard-skinned scar around his left eye was a dead give-away.

Oh, and it _was_ a surprise to see him! For after his disappearance from Ba Sing Se only a week ago, the princess had half expected it to be _another three years_ before she would see her dear brother again.

It seemed for once, the prodigy princess had assumed incorrectly, and her big brother had gotten no wiser with the years.

"Well, well, well, Zuzu! What rock did you crawl out from under?" Azula inquired lightly. "Don't tell me you changed your mind and decided to stop running."

Zuko's eyes snapped up—then slid sideways again. Like an old cat noticing a light dancing on the wall, only to remember the futility of chasing it. But a good sister would not miss that spark- the anger that was still there. It brought the comforting knowledge that he was still her gullible little Zuzu underneath it all.

Prince Zuko had always had too much ego for his own good: too honest to lie, too proud to run and hide. Not to mention a legendary temper…

Yet right now, that temper was reined, his voice soft.

"Found the Avatar's camp-site; this way."

Eyebrows arched in thought, Azula watched as he turned to lead her and her entourage away from the path, and up a hill.

Sputtered laughter stopped him.

"Oh, dear, _dear brother!_ And whatever where you doing _there?_"

His wide-eyed profile was the last piece of the puzzle: her little Zuzu had seemed conflicted when she had found him in Ba Sing Se. When she had talked him into working with her to wound the Avatar, he had reacted with abhorrence. Short on the heels of this was Iroh's betrayal and his subsequent arrest, which likely had upset her brother even more.

As easy as one-two-three.

"You didn't _actually_ try and join forces with the Avatar, did you?"

She only just caught his tight-lipped frown before he turned away.

"Don't be silly, little sis. The Avatar and his group are _champions of justice._ Why would they allow the company of a banished traitor?"

Azula laughed again, less mockingly—truly happy for once.

"That's right; nobody would want _you_ by their side."

Nobody but her.

_I missed you, brother!_

**Author's note, aka 'you talk too much':**

**I have done, and re-done the first piece of this, trying to get the feel of the later story somewhat in there. **

**2 april edit: I said I had 20k before. Now I am at 16 chapters up, and have about 25k laying around here now. Still, I see that the story is now 45k online. And when I am completely fair, we are only about ¼ through in the tale at best. The enormity of what I am doing is hitting me. Megalomania indeed. Still, I think there is enough for all to enjoy in this story. Humor, romance and epic battles. Introspection and character development. It's all in the works.**

**Zuko, as I am writing now has been called a calm!Zuko. There is a reason for that, and it will be explained in story later. Sokka, as I am writing him might be slightly cleverer then in-canon Sokka. As for Azula… she's going down the deep end fast. **


	2. Chapter 2

_**Do you know that old joke about the 13th rock division?**_

_**No? It goes a little like this:**_

_Ming - the commanding general of the Earth kingdom's troops, General Iroh - the Dragon of the West and in charge of the siege, and the commander of the 13th Rock Division are in a bar right outside the besieged city of Ba Sing Se._

_The 13th commander is listing his division's latest exploit against the Fire Nation, and Iroh listens from the side, mildly amused at the damages the man falsely claim against the Dragon's armies._

_The Earth General, growing tired of the ridiculous boasts turns on the man, saying: "That is wonderful, Commander, but I think you've helped our troops enough for now, don't you? Why don't you go desert and help Iroh's armies for a while?"_

_The commander is stunned speechless, but Iroh interjects smoothly: "Well, as it is not my habit to turn down a gift ostrich-horse, I can only graciously accept. After all, 599 days is too long for any siege. I shall take your offer and put these men under the command of my son, Lu Ten, and on the morrow we shall see if this city truly is as indomitable as you all claim._

_(And on the 600th day, Lu Ten falls in battle, the Dragon of the West suffers a mental break-down at the loss of his only son, and the siege is broken.)_

***Last night***

**~Z~ **

The ground shifted and boiled with animalistic panic. It moved accompanied by a young girl's shriek: that calm and solid nature of this element broken by the sheer terror of a twelve-year old master bender, as her form scurried back - away from him - on all fours.

"Wait!" Zuko called. But the ground lurched, again, and spat him out sideways.

Rocks spasmed, pulling him away from its epicenter: a blind little girl, trying to protect herself from the perceived threat;

from Zuko—from the big, evil fire-bender set on burning and hurting her, set on continuing what he had just started.

And suddenly, that was too much to bear.

Maybe it was quitting. Maybe it was giving up, but surely petrifying little blind girls could never be the right thing to do.

Right?

.

So this time Zuko did not rise again; rather, he let himself drop back and watched the girl scurry into the bushes and out of view.

_'Great going Zuko!'_

A full week of chasing the Avatar and his group, and when he had finally caught up with them, they had flat-out refused his offer to join them; attacked him even. And now, when the only one of their party willing to talk to him had sought him out, Zuko had mistakenly attacked her.

After a full minute of staring at the ground, past numb arms resting on knees, Zuko voiced the question:

"Why am I so bad at being good?"

The earth-bender was long gone by now, and so it was only his inner critic that answered. Idly, Zuko wondered if it was a bad sign that voice lately sounded like his little sister, Azula:

_'Yes that was amazing. Thank you for your help, Zuzu; in one brilliant stroke of good intentions you've managed to divide our enemy's forces and wound his earth-bender teacher. With friends like you, the Avatar _hardly_ needs enemies.'_

To Zuko, her high laughter sounded like the chimes during their family's winter-solstice dinners: high, stale and fake.

_'Aw, but don't worry about it, Zuzu! At least that's not all you are bad at -you were pretty lousy at being evil too.'_

Ah, but wasn't that the heart of it? Azula may always lie, but it was when she spoke _truth_ that her words really cut.

It was like that old joke about the 13thRock Division he had heard in Ba Sing Se: a division rumored to be the most incompetent and unlucky to have ever been put together. The one the Earth Armies had abolished years ago, never to use the unlucky number again for any unit.

_-'Don't you think you've helped enough…?'_

Hell, the Avatar and his friends had not even accepted Zuko's help yet, and he had already caused more damage than he ever had as an enemy.

But what else could he do? He really did want the Avatar to win. He really did understand Azula had to lose here; by proxy, perhaps his father as well. They were bad people, both of them. Zuko realized that now.

He also realized he might have taken a bit long for it to sink in. The ex-prince fully understood why the Avatar's little group had trouble believing anything he said. A week hence, in Ba Sing Se, he had joined Azula's side and attacked them with near-fatal results. Zuko might regret his actions now, but that did little to heal the Avatar from the lightning-strike.

As for Uncle Iroh…Zuko shied away from the memory. He had never thought to see that expression on Uncle, so full of disappointment and hurt. After that look, Iroh had turned away and refused to look at his nephew again.

.

So, had he run out of options already?

Aang and his friends were refusing his help, even his surrender. Was he, Zuko, ex-prince of the fire-nation, whose one remarkable trait was that he never gave up…going to quit after only one try?

Zuko supposed he could follow the group: dogging their steps as he always had, and simply refuse to quit until they either killed him or allowed him to join - Zuko didn't really believe they were capable of murder, so he could wear them down. Then again, with Azula on the trail he would likely do more damage that way than good.

And had Zuko not just proven that, even if he had no bad intentions, he was quite capable of hurting his would-be allies?

_What could he do…?_

.

Oh.

.

.

Well, that was pretty simple.

With a sigh, Zuko struggled to his feet, taking a moment to clench his fists and scowl at the ground.

He didn't like this. But then he wasn't supposed to, right?

_Penance, redemption..._

.

The best part was that this would work, no matter how badly he screwed up. No - it would work even better _the more he failed_. And no one needed to trust him for this either. Except for maybe… Well, as long as he didn't find a need to tell her any blatant lies, or get in her way too obviously, _she_ probably wouldn't deign to notice anything suspicious either.

With a sigh Zuko turned around to retrieve his panicked ostrich-horse, and descended back down into the forests, down the slopes he had climbed to get here.

.

He only hoped Azula would be somewhat pleased to see him back.

.

.

***present***

**~T~**

The Blind Bandit danced out of the elder girl's grasp.

"No, really! I'm pretty much convinced it was an accident." ."

Toph only got scoffs for answer though, the water-bender's nagging objections bouncing off the cave walls. Katara was always like that: _Motherly._

Right now, she was mothering over Toph's burned feet. Her Actions accompanied by muttered complaints and threats towards the Fire Nation prince. Like those would do more good to the burns on her soles then the water-bender's healing.

_It was freaking Toph out. _

"Will you give it a rest? Look, it's not even that bad."

Toph, six-time Ruble Champion running, shoved the water-tribe girl backwards, jumped to her feet, and did a little twirl for emphasis. Then, she landed in a solid stance, feet apart.

It was a good thing Toph was so tough: anyone else would have been rolling on the floor blowing at her feet for that. Or at least failed at Toph's trade-mark cocky grin; her feet hurt like a bad pun. Still, a few blisters seemed more bearable then Katara's constant fussing.

Of course, the little Mother Hen-Duck was not quite willing to let it go at that; Katara made a vexed sound, and with a: "Don't do that, you crazy earth-bender!" tried to grab for Toph's feet again. Of course, the greatest earth-bender of all time could break and move her stance easily enough.

Why couldn't the water-bender understand that Toph could take care of herself? She was _blind,_ not actually handicapped! And if she needed help, she would ask for it.

_Sheesh!_

Well, no; actually the 'Blind Bandit' would rather eat life rattlesnakes then ask Sugar Queen for help, but that was beside the point.

Toph felt the girl make another grab and back-stepped, ignoring the water-bender's exasperated calls that she was hurting her feet.

_Ye-ah! Because you keep making me have to turn on them, Sweet-Stuff, duh!_

But goading Katara on would only make her try harder, and Toph's feet really were hurting bad.

"Shouldn't you be looking after twinkle-toes instead?" she thus deflected. "He almost died only a week ago, you know."

For emphasis, Toph pointed in the boy's general direction. He was propped up against Appa, a blanket draped over his shoulder, chest wrapped in bandages. Aang sat there quietly, face turned their way with what Toph imagined would be laden eyes. No interrupting and averting the girl's quarrel. No jumping around, no happy-innocent remarks…

If that alone was not enough of a clue to how bad he was doing, his labored breathing should at least be a dead give-away.

The ploy could not fail; Katara turned, gasped, and ran to the Avatar's side.

"I'm sorry Aang! Did we wake you?"

Toph knew they had, but Aang would not want to worry her.

"No, Katara, I was done resting." Toph could hear his attempt at a smile in his words.

"How are you feeling?"

Lousy, though Toph.

"Okay, I guess," he answered.

Wow, the blind girl corrected herself internally. If Aang wasn't even trying to lie about it, he was doing _abysmal._

The fourth and last human member of their party seemed to notice Toph's worried frown, because Sokka crab-stepped towards her, and noted in an aside: "He didn't want breakfast either, after you two woke him up. He's got to be pretty bad."

They stood silently for a moment, frowning as Katara mothered their friend. But just as Toph thought to point out that a loss of appetite was probably not the sign of imminent death it would have been if it had been _Sokka_ suffering from it, she noticed the scrape of wood on bowl.

She gave him a derogatory stare, her words sharp: "So you thought you'd just help yourself to Aang's portion then, Meat-man?"

Toph felt him shrug, and Momo, the flying lemur, used the gesture to ease his landing on the boy's shoulder.

"Waste not, want not…"

A small flock of birds passed the opening of the cave.

Suddenly, Toph thought that was weird. It was mid-morning; there should not be any predators out scaring whole flocks of birds. But they had obviously been startled… and there had been more birds, earlier. Toph's feet were too sore for delicate work, so she sat herself down, and used her hands to do what she usually did with her soles: she felt.

Deep into the rock, searching the whole densely forested mount the cave was located on, feeling the earth, the rocks, the plants and the trees, roots cutting into the soil. And the tremors!

_So many, many tremors. _

"You guys, we have company coming," Toph sighed. "Lots."


	3. Chapter 3

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing.**

**We give both our thanks to HarukaChan143's, whom inspired the flashback to Zuko's change of heart. **

**One week ago.**

***FB***

**~Z~ **

Zuko stood panting in his night robes. Morning's first light streamed in through the throne-room's open windows. From Ba Sing Se's harbor came the screech of gulls and the crash of waves; sounds of the quays lying empty, mocking him. The fleet had sailed away under cover of darkness, when the newly reinstated prince had lain abed exhausted from his day. But with them, the fleet had taken…

His sister had probably not slept yet; for the amount of scheming Azula had done, it seemed likely she had pulled an all-nighter. Regardless, she looked every inch the princess: clothes unwrinkled and make-up too thick. High heels clicked on marble as she walked closer, completely forgoing his accusation.

_How could you, sister…_

"Oh, Zuzu, Zuzu, _Zuzu!_ How can you be so _soft?_"

How her voice could be so honey-combed sweet, and still cut at him like acid, Zuko would never understand.

"Surely you know: traitors are like a poison to the soul. They must be cut out or…"

"Uncle is _not_ a traitor!" Zuko cut her off.

The charges brought against Iroh were ridiculous: The _Dragon of the West_ -arrested for treason! Zuko had honestly thought there would be time to rectify that. But now, Azula had sent Uncle back to the Fire Nation; to await justice at the Fire Lord's leisure. Nobody had seen fit to wake the re-instated prince that morning, much less inform him about his uncle's forced departure. The prince had had to call in a servant and ask what the commotion was about. Azula had sent uncle away, in secret. She had taken him away from Zuko.

_And _now_how was he to make amends?_

Swallowing at the lump in his throat, he looked down at the marble floor. The throne-room of Ba Sing Se's royal palace had a nice floor: white marble flecked with deep green. Yet the boy was more oblivious to beauty now than ever; confusion and guilt warred within. Zuko had been sure he had done the _right_ thing; taking Azula's side against the Avatar—doing as his father wanted. But at the same time, it was obvious that Iroh had expected differently from him.

_Uncle had expected—and he had been sorely disappointed. _

Well, obviously, Uncle must have been even more mentally unbalanced than Zuko had thought. How could _anyone_ even _think_ of going against the _Fire Lord_—let alone if said Fire Lord was his own brother? But Iroh was not a bad man—No; Uncle was probably just confused; if only Zuko could get the chance to talk to the old man. Explain; make him understand…

_This had to be some epic form of misunderstanding._

"If you'd just let me talk to him…"

But Azula just laughed, pointing out "Where did I stop you from talking, Zuzu? It is Uncle Fatso that would not talk to you, remember? He would not even look at you."

It was true: when the Avatar left Ba Sing Se gravely injured, only thanks to Iroh's intervention, the retired general had stared after that great flying bison. Then, with a gesture of finality, Uncle had turned away from Zuko, and refused to even _look_ at him again. The meaning was clear:

_Uncle did not consider himself the traitor; rather, he felt he himself had been betrayed—betrayed by Zuko._

For all of Uncle's kindness and his forgiving nature, for all his understanding, this had apparently been the final straw for the old general. It had seemed ludicrous to the teen at first. But then, as his little sister ordered that kind old man arrested, as the Dai Li had come, to take his Uncle away in earthen chains, it had finally registered with Zuko; as much as the prince had tried to remain loyal to _everyone_, his action had indeed damned Uncle.

_But damn; was Zuko destined to realize what he had only after he had lost it? _

He had _always _been assured of Iroh's blessing, at every turn, in every circumstance. It was something Zuko had come to depend on, expect even. Oh, the old man had often smiled knowingly at Zuko's single-mindedness, had suggested alternatives and offered weird and ancient wisdom's at every turn, but he had always—always been there for Zuko to fall back on;

to catch him if he went too far or to patch him up when he managed to get hurt nonetheless.

To not have Uncle at his side was, Zuko realized with dawning horror, in some ways _worse_ than getting banished by Father. For the Fire Lord had _never_ approved of his son, no matter how hard he tried. Uncle Iroh, however, always _had._

_Up until now that was._

No, talking would not fix the rift between Zuko and his uncle. - _"But I have to try."_

Of course, his little sister was naturally insusceptible to his needs.

"Too bad;Daddy's orders Zuzu. Besides, the ship left at high-tide last night. By tonight, Iroh will be safely locked up in the capitol's prisons to await the Fire Lord's justice. There's no way to catch up to them now. Besides," the princess reminded him, red lips in a self-serving smirk, "your best bet is to finish your task, then plead with father to have mercy on the old sod."

The implication grew cold in Zuko's gut; his question sounding silly even to his own ears: "I thought I was forgiven…?"

She laughed her lady-laugh; cold like chiming bells, back of her hand covering her mouth; cultured, perfect, and completely fake.

"You _will _be, little Zuzu! As soon as you bring us the Avatar's dead body. After all, dear brother…" Her voice dropped that paste-on pleasantness, showing the steel beneath. "We wouldn't want to deceive our father by mistake, as we have no sure _proof _the child is dead."

_Which roughly translated to:_ '_You are still a banished traitor for as long as it strikes my fancy.'_

Zuko had been an idiot; he let himself be played by his sister.

_Again._

And he really should have known better.

_Azula always lies. _

"Excuse me a moment." He told her, in all honesty. "I think I'm going to be sick."

**Present.**

**~T~**

"I can feel them climbing up. There are a _lot_ of guys there, Sokka."

Toph tried to keep light and chiding. After Toph had sensed their enemies with her earth-bending, Katara wasted little time helping Aang onto Appa's back. But Sokka insisted on taking, and thus packing, _everything_—especially the food! It didn't exactly take hours, as he simply threw everything together in sacks. Still, the few extra minutes were grinding on Toph's nerves.

"I think there might even be Dai Li mixed in."

It had the desired effect: Sokka flung the last bag into the back of Appa's saddle, grabbed for his sword and boomerang and told them "Go, get to the clearing."

They needed the space to be able to take off; the bushes grew so thick around the cave's entrance, Appa would be hard-pressed to fly through them, and a take-off always took a little extra room. Without Toph's help, they would never have even found the little cave. Still, it seemed the soldiers heading their way knew well enough where the gang was hiding.

The group hadn't even made it past the bend out of the cave's mouth when Toph felt his presence; a hand, then another over the ledge, then he pulled himself up, quickly, landing in a crouch on the path.

"Zuko."

Toph heard her friends hiss.

Their enemy's reaction was a little odd though: a pause, then he scrubbed at his face.

"What are you guys still _doing _here?"

It was Katara that stepped forward, angrily. "_You!_ I cannot _believe _you. First you come here, _begging_, and now you send your men for us."

"They're not my men; I don't have any men anymore." His voice softened, like a confession."They are Azula's men."

Toph had wanted to give this man a chance. Only last night, she had wanted to believe his good intentions. And so she could hardly believe it: "Hang on, you set _Crazy Blue Fire_ on us?"

He at least seemed genuinely ashamed at it, straightening up defensively.

"Well, I didn't have anywhere else to go! So I thought I could hide out in the Mongoose-Bear's coat, so to speak. Anyway, this seemed a safe enough lead to throw her, because you bunch should have been long gone by now." His exasperation turned on them. "It's almost noon and you should be in a hurry to get the Avatar to safely, out of Fire Nation occupied land; it doesn't make sense to stay when a guy you obviously don't trust has already uncovered your location." He let out a confused sigh. "How are you lot ever going to save the world with a lousy work-ethic like that?"

There was ice in Katara's voice: "_Aang's_ hurt. _Toph's_ hurt. And it's your entire fault. And now you come here, again, and you try to…"

Sokka moved up next to his sister, likely calming her with a touch. "Go back and try the cliff, Katara." A scrape of metal as Sokka pulled his blade from its scabbard.

"I'll hold him off."

Still there came no answering ring of metal from their opponent, and the prince's stance did not suggest any fires springing forth soon either.

"Um, no?"

The fire-bender had this raspy voice that made him sound almost old. But apparently he was only around Sokka's age.

"Mai and Ty Lee are cutting you off there. You most definitely need to pass me."

Somehow, Toph knew Sokka was pointing his meteor-mettle sword at the prince, using his most sarcastic tone: "You know, if you're still trying to make friends, you really need to work on your people skills."

"Okay. True."There was an awkward pause. "Just so you know, my offer still stands."

"The one where you join us or surrender?" Toph could almost hear the wheels in Sokka's head turn. The water-tribe boy wasn't stupid; he had quite the brain in there. It really was a shame he hardly ever used it.

"The same."

"Okay." Sokka was pushing Katara back, placing his body between the water-bender and the prince, stepping back farther. "Take off your weapons and place them on the ground."

Toph had a nasty feeling, suddenly. "Eh. Sokka?"

A grunt, and then the thud of still-sheathed metal hitting ground.

"Kick them this way." Sokka continued.

She could hear the weapons skidding Sokka's way.

Then the prince's demand, almost silky: "You'll have to take me with you, though."

Even Aang stirred at that, from his perch atop Appa's back, thought he lacked the strength to speak. Between the fact that the Avatar was gravely wounded, Toph was less than her usual kick-ass self, and that they were cornered, taking this man was just not a sane idea. The earth-bender herself would have liked give this Zuko-character a chance, had she had the time and breathing space to quietly review everything he said and did. But not right now. Right now, the imperative was to get their trusted group to safety.

Toph was sure the young warrior felt the same: "Sokka?"

"Getting to that," the water-tribesman called through clenched teeth, as he moved forward, closing in on the prince. "Katara, take Appa and Aang to the clearing, we'll be right there."

Katara led the sky-bison away quietly, and Momo moved to Toph's shoulder. Her mouth was dry so Toph swallowed, and she was pretty sure she heard the man at the end of Sokka's sword do the same: "You have to take me with you. Tie me up if you must, but that is the deal. You _have _to let me come along."

They all knew what Sokka was going to say next: "Sorry, bud. Even if I would like to try, you're too dangerous. Also, your latest actions are not really inspiring any trust."

Yeah, they both knew that. And yet both Toph and Zuko reacted with surprise. Toph knew she was gaping. "That's unfair dealing, Sokka."

Sadly, the water-warrior was unimpressed: "We haven't _promised _anything yet. And as for breaking deals, our little prince has a few up on us there anyway. Toph, bind his feat to the ground."

She was about to refuse, honestly. But the fire bender's growl stopped her. "Water-tribe boy, I am warning you. This is _unacceptable._"

Sokka was unworried: "Too bad."

"You're not even making this _look l_ike a struggle. I am not agreeing to this."

"You might want to remember, I'm the one with the sword at your neck." The water warrior's voice was smooth and soft; one might think he was enjoying himself, if you didn't have Toph's ability to feel his pulse hammering in his throat.

The Fire Nation prince preferred to disguise his unease with anger. "Then go slit my throat already. If I have to die like a pig I'd rather do it here, right now, than wait for my little sister to get round to it."

"Oh, please. Like you said, she's your _little sister_. You'll be fine. Toph?"

It still didn't sit well with the little earth-bender. But Sokka had a point; they couldn't take him, and surely his own sister... even if she was crazy as a dingo-bat on cactus-juice. With a sigh, Toph took her stance, and—found the fire-bender gone.

By the time Toph had pieced together what had happened, the prince had elbowed and ducked under Sokka to roll for his swords, and was up and swinging at the water-tribe warrior. Toph balked, stepped back, and cursed her burnt-feet; had she been fit, she would never have let an enemy within striking distance like that. It was luck the pair of boys seemed far too preoccupied with one another; if Zuko had taken his first swing at Toph, she wasn't sure she would have noticed in time to block.

It was a good reality check, Toph realized; she really _was_ blind – because with her feet as damaged as they were, they just didn't see as well as they should have. It was a realization that filled her gut with cold fear.

Also, the noises from soldiers climbing up the mountain were starting to reach her. A few Dai Li had been lifting soldiers up with earth-bending before, but they had either given up or were too exhausted to outpace old-fashion climbing by now. It was small comfort; Sokka was running out of time, fast. Unsure on how to proceed, Toph called out. "Meat-boy?"

Sokka's retort was grim with concentration. "Get to Appa, Toph. I'm on my way."

Toph snorted.

"Yeah right, so you can be skewered and barbecued by Sparky here."

She took a low crouching stance, this time using her hands a little clumsily, to try for the prince's ankles; but it was hard, with the two of them twisting and turning and striking. Toph was more familiar to feeling with her feet. Also, Momo started chattering in her ear, and she had to scoot the little lemur off.

It made little difference. Even without Momo she could not trap his feet in stone. And the Fire Nation soldiers; they were so very, very close.

Finally, unhappily, Toph decided to concede the point; with her feet in such poor condition, Toph would be hard-pressed if she had to make a dash for it. Worse, she would be slowing Sokka down.

Toph did not like being a burden.

With a "You better be right behind me, mister Brave Warrior," she stepped back into the bushes and started the climb up the path to the clearing where Appa should be waiting. Still, when she got to the jagged edge top of the hill, she could not help but turn her un-seeing eyes back to feel how Sokka was faring. Toph figured she had ample cover, but somehow she was convinced the two combatants could see her, from her high-perched position.

Much as she loathed to admit it, Toph was worried for Sokka.

On the road below she could still hear Momo chattering. There was a grunt and a whoosh and a pause, and Toph knew Sokka had thrown his boomerang. She could hear it cut through the branches overhead, going wide. Sokka must have missed, and the combatants closed in on each other again.

The flurry increased, and the earth-bender could almost imagine sparks flying. Both stepped in unison until Sokka missed his footing, tumbled to the ground. Then the fireballs: flying wide, undirected and all over the place.

With a curse, Toph crouched deeper, aiming to put up a wall for Sokka, though it would stretch even Toph to her limits to bend that far away. But then, the girl noticed the fireworks had ended, and Sokka seemed to still be in one piece. Confused, Toph felt deeper, to the fire-bender's shaking frame. Felt him plant down the foot he had used to shoot out fireballs, then change his weight to point a Dao at the boy still stunned on the ground.

"You _both _better remember t—…"

Without another sound, the fire prince crumbled to the ground as Boomerang hit on the return of its round trip.

Sokka had only a moment, before the first soldier made it up the rocks. Then, he scrambled, running Toph's way, and she wasted no time either, running as fast as her sore feet would allow; making for the deep cover of undergrowth. Once there, the water-tribe boy managed to catch up, and gave a shaky laugh. Toph knew without a doubt the boy was giving her a thumbs-up.

"Plan worked like a charm."

Toph could only frown at that.

"_So _true Slouchy-pooh. It was almost _too_ easy."

But then, she sucked into a deep breath as she felt six heavy feet leave the ground.

"Scratch that Sokka. We're in deep mud. They've just left without us."

**-~K~-**

Katara knew she should never have obeyed her brother– the damned boy seemed to think himself the chief of their little group.

Well, she'd have her say about that.

Worriedly she strode back around Appa's other side, hoping to see her brother and Toph making it out of the overgrowth. _What had they all been thinking?__Leaving Sokka to fight that crazy prince!_ Katara should have done it; she had enough water; and at least she could bend.

All Sokka had was his space-sword and the boomerang. And Toph—Toph could hardly _walk_, let alone fight. Katara should have stayed to fight, and sent the others ahead.

Well, no. Katara needed to stay with Aang. He was still hurting bad, and she needed to be there to give him more healing sessions. She was not expendable, Katara knew that—but, damn it! Neither were Sokka and Toph.

Of course, just when Katara had decided things could not get worse, they did: someone did step into the clearing.

But it was not Toph, and it was not Sokka.

No, it was a Fire Nation soldier. Without a thought, Katara plopped open her water flask and whipped the man in face. Yet, he cried as he went down, and Katara could hear answering cries through the woods around them.

"And what do you think you're doing?" she asked the hunched form trying to clamber down from Appa's saddle.

Aang grunted as Katara pushed him back to his seat with little trouble. At least he was lucid enough to argue "But we _have_ to fight, Katara. The soldiers on us and we have to wait for Sokka and Toph."

As much as Katara wanted to agree, she knew that was not an option.

"You can't even _stand,_ let alone fight."

Not to mention the boy looked like the walking dead. No; this was no time to stand and fight. It was time to be like water: evade, redirect.

"We're going to lead them away, then double back for Sokka and Toph," she decided, already taking a seat besides Aang.

Her dear friend had a very good objection though: "They'll… see two people in the saddle… know where to look for them."

Katara dry-swallowed; but this was the best they could do—_or was it?_

Using the water from her water-skin, she grabbed behind them, pulling their luggage from the storage space in the back seat. With a quick motion of the hand, she constructed two piles from sacks and sleeping bags, and froze them solid to the saddle. Then, with a last swipe of the hand, she finished the heaps off with snowy heads.

"Yip, yip, Appa!" she called to their mount.

Aang giggled weakly as they took to the air.

"Snowmen. That's brilliant."

He sagged down in his seat, and then thought better of it and slunk himself against her. All energy spent, he passed out with a mumble.

"Katara, you're so _smart._"

Katara put an arm around him and tried not to cry.

She didn't feel smart; she felt useless. But Aang would be alright. And Sokka and Toph too; they had to be.


	4. Chapter 4

**Pointed out by HarukaChan143, Sokka should not actually have his space-sword yet. Uh. My bad; I cannot really fix that, so let's say he found it right after Ba Sing Se, okay? **

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing.**

***Five days ago***

**~~Z~~**

There was an amazingly long time between the conscious decision to become a good person and join the Avatar, and the realization that Zuko had no actual, clear definition of what it _meant_ to be good.

_Days of time. _

It was not before Zuko found himself on a trail leading straight through the woods, ostrich-horse led on the rein and nothing more to do then put one foot in front of the other before the banished prince even thought of that.

Oh, Zuko knew what it meant to have honor, what it mean to be brave. He knew what he was supposed to do to be a good son, to be a good prince; he even knew what it meant to be a good Fire Nation soldier. But more and more, he had come to believe that these attributes were not necessarily synonym to good. Or, if they had been, it was high time he adjusted his _definition._

Of all the people Zuko had known and met, there were only _two_ he was willing to base his redefinition of good on: his uncle Iroh, and the Avatar himself.

Guilt ate at Zuko at the thought of his uncle—the boy wanted nothing more than to go after the man; to safe him. But Iroh was long-gone, sent to the capital as a prisoner by boat. Zuko could not follow there; though not because of guards or even the sea.

Much as he loathed admitting it, it was fear keeping him away. Zuko had been banished a long time ago and he had never considered returning to Fire Nation waters without the Avatar in chains. Flaunting his father's orders; just sailing back into his country of birth, to try and rescue his uncle that might be angry enough to deny Zuko's help even if he came…Maybe Zuko was not as brave as he liked to think, but the very idea made him shudder.

Still, Zuko felt inclined to keep both the Avatar's and his Uncle's examples in thought as he tried to navigate this thing of becoming good.

Now, that in itself did not really help Zuko much with his re-definition; Zuko knew he had as much chance of learning to speak in riddled proverbs like his Uncle as he had to learn to fly like Aang. But a good, thorough comparison between the two might go a long way. After all, on the surface, the Avatar and Uncle Iroh were as different as two people could be; one was a flighty, twelve-year old nomad monk, while the other was a retired, somewhat lazy general with a partiality for tea.

But there were, if you looked, similarities between the two: their friendly manner towards all strangers, even the most bedraggled pauper; their willingness to offer help to those who required it; the ability to believe the best of people until proven wrong; their refusal to resort to violence, even when pressed.

And, of course, the joy they took from the simple pleasures the world had to offer: Zuko knew from stories the Avatar was distracted from his lessons abysmally easily, and took every opportunity to enjoy 'mini-vacations' and the likes. His uncle, too, had a penchant for 'taking breaks', 'taking time to enjoy life', tea, and other such obscurities.

Zuko conceded he might have trouble imitating a few of those traits.

Well, actually, Zuko might well have serious trouble doing _any _of the above. Still, there was nothing but to try. And as all but one of these targets he had now set himself required human interaction – of which he did not expect any soon, the only thing he could now practice on was... enjoying the little things.

_Alright_, Zuko told himself, fervently_, I can do this_ – it sounded easier than reigning in his temper so far as that he could abstain from violence altogether, anyway.

Zuko stopped, ostrich-horse stepping besides him and following suit with a surprised frown. Then, with dedication, the boy turned his head up to the sun and spread his arms to better catch its rays.

The light was warming, taking away the last of the night's chills. Drying what little moist pre-dawn had left in his clothes. Zuko took a deep breath; the air smelled of pine and oak and dirt from the living forest. The sound of birds, squirrels. Wind through the trees, blowing softly. An early-summer day, the thick forest nearly drowning with activity and anticipation and—_ugh!_

_No,_ Zuko told himself. _That would not do._

Shaking his head, Zuko started down the path again, rein pulling taught before his pack animal followed suit. He was going to have to work on this, on 'taking in the small pleasures'. Oh, right now, it seemed about as plausible as finally mastering lighting, but Zuko was never one to quit easily. He was going to have to make room for this in his practice schedule. Enjoy the 'little things in live' for a few hours a day.

Beat it into his system until he got it right.

***present***

**~~S~~**

The soldiers were not actually looking for them.

That was the one thing that gave Sokka hope; the one silver lining within this could of troubles that surrounded them.

Because, right now, they were up to their necks in it; there must have been over a hundred men all together, on this rocky little slope. And they were gathering at the clearing from which Appa had taken off. Sokka supposed it made sense. It was the only clearing _big enough_ to hold that many men, if only barely. And, almost predictably Sokka mused, as soon as the lot of them had gathered in military formation to be barked at by some commander, they started fanning out, to cut down undergrowth around the clearing and set up camp.

Sokka grimly watched the soldier's actions from the ground 'tent' Toph had built then: little more than a blanket of earth that covered them as they both lay flat down on their bellies, hoping not to get noticed amongst the foliage. But then Sokka had learned a long time ago that what he hoped for and what he got where usually opposites on the spectrum of possibilities.

As he watched the soldiers work, coming closer and closer, Sokka came to a single conclusion: "We've got to move."

The girl besides him snorted.

"Do you think?"

Toph Bei Fong: blind earth-bender and demonstrative tough 'grrl' extraordinaire. Sometimes it did get a little tiresome though.

Ignoring the urge to resort to sarcasm as well, Sokka continued smoothly.

"Let's see if we can make it back to the cave. If you can sink us into the walls there I think we would at least be safe."

Sadly, where they were now, there was just too much sand and dirt to try that particular trick. Toph had already explained quite empathically that she would not be able to stop sand and wet mud clogging any breathing holes she would make; if they dug in at this position, their hiding place would soon become their tomb. But the cave was all solid stone; they could hide there.

So, very carefully, they inched away from the clearing. The trip back was nerve-wrecking. Toph had scoffed at his worries and claimed that she would sense anyone coming close enough to see them early, but a water-warrior did not like to take unnecessary chances. So they followed a track parallel to the path, not on it. Soon enough, Toph admitted this was actually a necessary precaution, as the hill was positively swarming with soldiers by now, and even for someone of her skills it became hard to tell between safely-out-of-view and immediate-threat.

The only good thing about their situation was Sokka did not need to worry about tracks; the Fire Nation soldiers made a big enough mess stomping around to prove once and for all they had _absolutely no aptitude _for tracking. And even if they did, they would have run over any tracks long before anyone would think to look for footprints.

All the same, the little mount that housed the cave was steep, and walking next to the trail had them over sheer drops more than once. It was slow, careful going.

Still, they had almost made it back to the entrance of the cave, before Toph announced, quite placidly: "People up ahead." An almost cheerful grunt: "I think it's the freak-show trio and your sparring partner—_ooh!_ And there's someone coming from behind too!"

Sokka felt his eyebrow twitch as he looked at his earth-bending companion. _Seriously, we are in trouble here!_

The warrior could see so many scenarios leading to their imminent death, or- perhaps worse - their capture! He had serious trouble navigating and Toph was making it sound like they were on a fun field trip.

Still, as nominal leader and eldest in the group it was up to him to act like a grown-up, and so he bit back his retorts and steered the blind girl to the side, into the deepest bushes.

Then, as silently as they could, the pair tried to pass by the cliff where Sokka had just had his rather brave face-off with a fire-bending prince—even if he had to say so himself. However, as they edged closer, Sokka's ears caught the wisps of a heated argument. And, as much as the Water Tribe warrior had had the intent to continue on, he could not help sneak a peek at the strange scene playing out.

The angry dark-haired girl pacing the path Sokka soon recognized as Azula, the human lightning conduit. She looked decidedly more aggravated than he had ever seen her. On the ground, the two other girls seemed bent over a figure of whom only the shoes were visible. Zuko was still in the exact same spot where Boomerang had struck him down, so it was easy to deduce who was at the center of their attention.

Toph, next to Sokka touched his arm in warning, and after the space of a breath, a soldier stepped from the path Sokka and the earth-bender had been tracking parallel to. The man carried a pail of water, but as soon as he came close, Azula wrenched it from his hands. Then she proceeded to dump it unceremoniously over her brother. There was half a second of clenched hands from her, before Zuko started sputtering and sat up.

His uneven eyes wide, the prince blinked up at his surroundings, before putting his face in his hands. "Ugh. My head!"

"Who cares about your head, you miserable piece of refuse? You were supposed to keep them occupied!" If the princess had been worried about her brother's condition before, she most certainly hid it well now.

Sokka couldn't see the prince's face now, but his hands were traveling past soggy hair, carefully feeling up their way to find what damage Boomerang had done, before he answered in a soft voice. "I think I did, right?"

Azula kicked dirt his way for answer. "You let them pass—and you just lost to a bloody water peasant! _One_ bloody peasant!"

_Peasant?_Sokka of the southern Water Tribe was a _warrior,_ and the chief's son! That made him equal to a prince in his book, if not better. It was a good thing Toph had put her hand on his arm; else he might have gone out there and tell the crazy bitch what was what.–_Well,__maybe_. Azula really was one _very__crazy _bitch.

"Technically, the earth-bender was with him. So it was two against one."

Toph whispered a _'damn straight'_, but the princess in the clearing was unimpressed, tone sarcastic: "Oh, _really?_ You poor thing!"

But it seemed Zuko didn't heed the warning. "And Momo was there too, so three against one."

"Momo?"

"A flying lemur. His chattering is very distracting."

"A lemur makes it three against one." Azula's voice was almost sweet.

"Four, if you want to count Boomerang."

Next to him, Toph gave a muted chuckle.

"I've got to say it, Meat Man. I think I like our Princey. He's funny."

But Sokka rolled his eyes_. Suicidal is more like it__._

Azula seemed to be of a same mind as Sokka; she had grabbed her brother by the shirt and was shaking him roughly: "How stupid are you trying to make yourself out, Zuzu? And what the hell is up with the swords? You're a fire-bender! Don't you have a shred of pride left?"

Whether due to some survival instinct or some other reason, the prince seemed completely lacking in his usual fiery temper.

"That's actually… a funny story. Tell you when my… headache is gone?"

Zuko's eyes kept studiously away from his sister, hands limp as the young woman seemed set on set on shaking reason back into her brother. Sokka could well understand the desperate need to look anywhere but into the fuming girl's face. Hell, in Sokka's personal opinion, wise men always tread lightly around women. Especially bending women; especially crazy bending women; and crazy Fire Nation fire-bending princesses had to be good for several superlatives.

As well as he understood Zuko's feelings, it was still a shock when the prince's eyes steered away again, and locked onto his own. Sokka's sharp intake of breath might have alerted Toph; or perhaps she had some other sense that told her of the situation.

Whatever the case, the blind bandit whispered aloud what he thought: "Uh-oh. We've just been spotted, huh?"

_Apparently __not._ After another moment, Zuko slapped his sister's hands from his oddly green shirt, calling out calmly: "Yes, thank you Azula. I think I've got it now. I am an idiot. Maybe that's, you know, why they put you in charge?"

Azula gave a rather fake laugh, and then turned to address the soldier still at her back.

"Find my useless brother a medic, and send word to the troops to get back to my tank. It seems we need to _pursue_ the Avatar."

The soldier almost seemed to want to object, likely because all the other troops had seemed set on putting up camp on the hill. But he saluted and turned around. Soon, Azula stalked off down the path herself, and the two girls left seemed distracted enough by the prince's rather loud complaints that Sokka though it was worth trying to make their way back to the cave.

They had a few close calls, especially when the acrobat-girl wanted to show Zuko an exercise that would apparently alleviate his head-ache—though Sokka was hard-pressed to believe standing on your hands with your feet wrapped up around your torso was actually possible for any male, let alone that it would help with concussions.

Still, they had made it into the cave's mouth, and found it – thankfully -unguarded. Toph put a hand to the wall, looking for a good spot, and then announced "Guess what, Snoozles. I think there's actually cavity here, at the other side of this wall. We can hide here easy. All we need is a small air-vent.

Sokka just nodded, before remembering Toph would not be able to see the gesture. She seemed to catch it in some other way though – or perhaps she didn't need his endorsement. With a swipe of her arm the wall gave way to let them pass into total dark.

It was probably only minutes later before Toph spoke up.

"Do you have your spark-stones on you?"

His assent prompted her to continue.

"Because I think there's a torch on the wall there, two steps left from where you're standing."

Confused, Sokka did as she suggested and lit the torch after some groping; what met his eyes was quite the shock, and his intake in breath was answered by Toph's agreeing murmur. She must have already noticed what Sokka could see now; that this cave was not _a cave__at all._

Legend said the spirits always had their eyes on powerful benders; on heroes and kings and on the descendants of such lines. And, obviously, this would go double for the Avatar.

Him? Sokka was just a guy with a boomerang; he was nothing special. Unfortunately it seemed the spirits got their eye on him anyway, probably by proxy. Toph was likely powerful enough to warrant this kind of attention. Sokka could still hope that, if he ever got away from said company, no spirit would ever take notice of him again.

'_If I ever get out of this alive,' _Sokka thought grimly, '_I'm going to find myself the safest, most bland water village out there, marry the most common girl I can find and live out my days in obscurity.'_

It was a nice plan. It _sounded _like a nice plan. But Sokka knew, down to his bones, that the spirits would never allow it.

**~~Z~~**

When the medic began to busy himself, wrapping Zuko's head in bandages, Mai and Ty Lee finally left him alone. Apparently, they had other duties to attend. Well, it was not that he did not appreciate their concern -or rather, it made him feel weird and awkward. But he had to learn to accept help anyway if he was going to be 'good', so Zuko tried his hardest to appreciate their care.

Still, it was good to be left alone, and wait for his bird to be brought up.

"Is this the animal you asked for?"

Despite his headache, Zuko smirked at the soldier's tone.

"That's her. Is there a problem?"

The soldier held her at arm's length, shying away from her almost unconsciously.

"Bird had a nasty temper on her; she bit me. You should have her put down."

"She's not nasty, soldier. She's just got good taste in people." As the medic was done, Zuko reached out for the leads, and narrowly evaded a nasty peck. "See what I mean?"

The man raised an eyebrow at him, and so Zuko opted to try his new 'friendly grin' on the guy. This had the probably-not-so-good, but still rather fortunate effect of the soldier backing up three steps before turning around to flee.

Well, that might just be because anyone in _Azula's army_ should be panicking at the sight of a royal smiling.

Zuko hoped that was it.

With a sigh, he unbuckled his saddle's bag, finding a little book he had worked from since early childhood. This was not the original from back then, of course. That one was burned in an explosion and sunk with his ship. He had also catered a few notes to the intended owner. Zuko dropped the book to the ground, closed his bag back up, and started down the path.

Yeah. That's right. He was helping the Avatar.

Zuko wondered how far he could go with this, before anyone would even notice.


	5. Chapter 5

***Flashback: early morning on the same day, after burning Toph's feet.***

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing.**

**~Zuko~**

The visage before him was beautiful: a little waterfall made its way down the mountain slope, past rocks and tree roots while at the side, a king fisher was washing its latest kill in the water. Birds were singing, and butterflies frolicked at the muddy banks. Perfect; Zuko knew, down in his very bones that this was the kind of picturesque spot Uncle would have chosen for a stop and have his morning tea.

That was why the outcast teen had tied his ostrich-horse to a tree and made his way up to a comfortable outcrop with his morning rations.

He would find Azula soon, but before he did, Zuko meant to have some more _quality time_. The incident that night with the earth bender still had the disowned prince's nerves on edge, and this new mission he had set himself – at his sister's side – would require Zuko to be as calm and balanced as he could be.

The rations were long forgotten: right now, Zuko was fiercely working on… _enjoying the moment._

The fire bender sat legs crossed instead of a more familiar kneel on an overhanging rock. For the umpteenth time, he clenched his teeth and took a deep breath, trying with all his being to revel in the crisp-fresh water-cooled air; the sounds, the smells, the feels. An unguarded moment and he closed his eyes, breathing deeply.

In, out.

In… out.

Only to realize he was slacking off, and working towards breathing meditation.

Deliberately, Zuko threw his eyes wide and willed himself to enjoy the vision. He tried to slouch, slanting his back to one side. But the action only made him uncomfortably aware of the uneven curve of his spine, and he could almost feel his childhood teacher's disapproving eyes on him, so he straightened up again. At least in that position, he could stop himself from fidgeting.

Zuko was hardly 'enjoying himself' for five minutes before he could no longer stop the onslaught of conscience thought; a fun-killer if he ever knew one. How did Uncle deal with it? Was the man simply without an inner critic, without a voice that laughed at him at every turn?

As usual, the commentary came to Zuko as voiced by Azula. But this thing inside him was possibly even nastier and more observant than the real deal.

_'So it's come to this, has it? Well, I suppose it's only right. After all, the small things in live are all you will ever get. You might as well learn to enjoy your lot in life.'_

With a wince, Zuko turned to trace that watery S, down the slope; how it flowed and bounced and turned from rock to rock. He focused on that foaming trail so hard his eyes started to water, but it hardly deterred that critic.

'_'You know, there is a certain irony in the fact that you've finally taken your Uncle's lessons to heart only after you've betrayed him and sent him to his death.'_

The youth blinked, furiously, trying to just be; to just enjoy. But it seemed his conscience was too laden with guilt to let him be.

_'Oh, but Zuzu, dear. Why do you have to make things so hard on yourself? Betraying your Uncle might have ingratiated you with Father and Azula, but switching sides again will not make things right again with Iroh. You will only be making yourself more, and angrier, enemies.' _

Zuko could feel - was almost convinced by now - his sister standing behind him, wearing him down. All he wanted was to turn around and throw fireballs at his imagined tormentor. But that would not be _good_. What would Uncle do? What would the Avatar do?

_'Do the right thing?'_

The thing behind him morphed, turned into the water-bending female that had so vehemently opposed him joining Aang's little troupe.

_'You wouldn't know the right thing if it spat you in the face.'_

Gritting his teeth, Zuko tried to think of a fitting proverb.

_Don't get mad, get even._

No; that was all wrong.

"At least I'm trying," he opted. "That's got to be worth something."

_'Oh, Zuzu!' _

Zuko was undecided if it was a good thing the voice was back to the guise of Azula.

_'When has your best ever been good enough?'_

_Stay positive._ That's what Uncle would have done, right?

"Alright!"

Zuko shot to his feet, clapping his hands together twice, then once to his face for good measure.

"A few more hours of you, and I'll be completely impervious to the real thing."

Feeling strangely refreshed, Zuko set out to find his real sister.

**Present: ~Sokka~**

"Be careful, Sokka. That man is not human."

The old man just sat there, smiling. Looking unassuming, non-threatening and... very, very, human - as far as Sokka could tell. But Toph had senses to tell her things he could not see, so he believed her assessment.

One hand joined with Toph's, and a lemur on the shoulder for extra comfort, Sokka tried to shed light on the mystery in front of him with the torch on hand.

Their cavity had been a hallway. The hallway led to a gateway. The gateway led to a room. And once they reached it, the room had already been lit. A man was sitting here, at a hardwood desk, surrounded by parchments and scrolls and books. But it was odd, so very odd that Sokka had not seen the light from this room, back when he had been standing next to Toph, in total darkness.

"Welcome Sokka, Welcome Toph. I am so glad you could make it."

The old man spoke in a pleasant voice, and he reminded Sokka of all the nice old men he had met in his life; it was like this man was somehow like all of them, and all of them were like this elderly fellow. Grey beard, yellow faded robes. Thin, yet not frail, with an ancient manner to his speech.

"How…?"The Water Tribe warrior started.

"No heartbeat."

The old man's smile turned wistful at that. "The girl is right, of course. I died almost seventy years ago."

The torch was to the floor and replaced by Sokka's space-sword in an instance. His boomerang stayed on his back, only because this was too close quarters to use her. But the man… -thing?- kept its smile.

"I used to be human though, if that helps. I am, indeed, a ghost."

His smile finally did falter when he noticed both Sokka and Toph backing up carefully the way they had come.

"I assure you, I mean you no harm. In fact, Toph, what I have to tell you is very important to the survival of your people."

"_My _people?" Toph laughed, a little too boisterously; sometimes her show of bravado really got on Sokka's nerves.

"You seem to be confused, old man. It's the air benders that were rooted out."

"Yes."

Again, that old man fought for a pleasant smile.

"Indeed, we were. Please," He gestured, standing from his chair as he waved a hand at a pair of scales. "Please, listen what I have to say. Please, take a moment to look."

Sokka had a mind that worked sluggishly in the morning, was easily diverted by shiny baubles like girls or food, and only ever seemed to come alive when he was working on a good prank to pull.

But it was sharp when he needed it: "You were an air bender."

Sokka sheathed his space-sword. The old ghost looked pleased.

"Indeed I was; one of the few survivors of the air temple's purging. I was away traveling at the time of the attacks, and had many Earth Kingdom friends that were kind enough to hide me away. I lived out my last days in hiding."

Then his expression turned to a grimace, "Being little good to anyone I am afraid." and puffed a breath. "But perhaps today, I can make up a little for that."

He gestured at his scales again, and Sokka took a closer look. It was an old-fashion type of poured iron, about half as long as Sokka's arm all together. On one side of the scales -depressed all the way down - stood several differently sized weights. The other end, suspended, was empty.

"Come," the ghost repeated, sounding a little surer as he noticed Sokka's interest. "Look and see. Surely you are aware; it is the duty of the Avatar to restore balance to the world."

The Water Tribe warrior twitched at that, and then let out an over-dramatic sigh."Ah. I knew there was a good explanation. You have me confused with someone else. I am not the Avatar."

But the ghost's smile only stretched, becoming more akin to a monkey up to tricks now, "I am aware, young warrior. And I would ask you in return: are you aware that, though the Spirits demand of the Avatar that he restores balance, they have little care on how he achieves it?"

Toph had been hanging back up to now, but her usual bravado seemed to return to her: she strode into the room like she owned it now, placing the usual comments on how she would love to _see_ whatever the old ghost had to _show her_. Perhaps Toph, now that she had a voice to give her bearing on this long-dead man, longer felt out of her depth - If Toph Bei Fong even considered it possible to be out of her depth.

Sokka, on the other hand, knew quite well how far out of his depth he was. He had devised a strategy to deal with these situations accordingly a long time ago. Still, running around in panic and hiding under the closest piece of fur just was not fixing his problems lately.

So Sokka took his only other available option; to tackle the situation head-on like a warrior, armed with only his wit and intellect. "I supposed your scales are to represent the state of balance in the world today?"

"Indeed." The old man answered. "You truly are a clever man, dear Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. Truly an asset to the Avatar's group."

As much as Sokka wanted that to be true, he had to agree with Toph's derogatory words: "Oh, please! The allegory is so blatantly obvious even a blind person could see - and I should know!"

"I suppose it is, to a lady such as you." The old man acknowledged generously. "But, please, my clever young ones: the Spirits may not care about how balance is restored, but old ghosts such as I do. So, show me please, how would you go about returning Balance in this situation?"

Sokka swallowed, well aware were the ghost was steering him. "I imagine the empty side would be the Air Nomads, all destroyed. Well, obviously, the best way would be…" Sokka picked up several unused weights from the table, and placed them on the empty side.

That got him a grunt of approval from his ghostly companion: "Ah yes, I rather favor that option myself. And yet… far be it for me to question the Avatar's… potency. Yet he is but one boy, only twelve years old. I would be tempted to say; asking this of him might be a little…much?"

Sokka's ears burned as he realized the implication of what he had suggested, and the old man's words had his adolescent mind, coupled with a considerable imagination, run rampart. His face was slowly turning beet-red, and it a good thing to the water-tribesman that the only one that could see him was long-dead.

Toph, as usual, chose to attack. She stamped a foot, trying for indifference. "So? What's the problem? We fix the equation by taking stuff out; the Fire Nation caused the break in balance, and so it seems only fair that they should pay the price in blood."

"Ah, my good lady. And there you have come up with the only other option I have seen for our plight. You see, the problem is indeed much graver than that. For the opposite of Air, is, as you well know, not Fire at all. The opposite of Air is-."

"Earth." Sokka ground out over Toph's gasp. It might well be that the warrior, too, was entering a detached form of shock: yet his mind was clearer than ever.

Sokka stroked Momo on his shoulder absentmindedly as he explained: "The Spirits do not care how the balance is restored, as long as it is. They will continue to upset the lives of the living, and will take a hand in restoring said balance if it takes too long for their liking. And it already has; that is why the Earth Kingdoms suffer so much worse from Spirit attacks then the other lands."

"Indeed." The old man agreed again.

"The Spirits do not care how high the sides of the scales are stacked, as long as they are stacked evenly. But they are, on a whole; only capable of taking out of the equation, and that is what they will do." A hesitation: "My dear young ones please understand; the Spirits have been patient, waiting for the Avatar to fix this. But now that he has returned, they will not be put off any longer. They will have their balance, one way or another. If they decide the Avatar has squandered his chance, and fix the balance their way. Dear ones, whatever spiritual unrest you have experienced in the past will be no more than a gust of wind lost in a storm's fury."

Sick dread had made its place in Sokka's stomach.

"What do we do?"

The old ghost looked apologetic:

"I don't know."

"You don't know?!" young twin voices accused in unison.

"I am sorry." And both teens knew he truly was.

"I have collected scrolls and writings on balance and how it has been maintained in the past. I have done what little research I could, alone and hidden. You are welcome to all of it, and I would hope it will bring you a better answer then the two I have found.

I have high hopes your inquiring minds will find more then I could, and perhaps a change of perspective will shed better light on all this: the greatest civilizations of the past _did_ flourished by spanning together with their opposite, after all: Air to Earth, Water to Fire. It is even told that the dragons and the great Leviathans came to the each other's aid in time of need. But I truly cannot see how any of this will help you now."

"Leviathans?" Sokka asked, confused.

For once, the old ghost seemed unbalanced: "Oh, for a Water Tribesman not to know this much! What has the world come to? Leviathans: the world's first and natural water benders?"

**~Zuko~**

Mud, rain, and a lot of men suffering in silence. They were trudging up a muddy trail that had been a neat forest way only minutes ago; country roads, rain and tanks followed by contingents of foot-soldiers and Komodo-rhinos just didn't mix. The ten Dai Li Azula had taken with her had long ago given up on clearing a path for them, exhausted. Now they all just struggled on, after that metal beast that pushed through the woods, simply because they had to.

Indeed, Zuko thought he had as little choice as the soldiers surrounding him; though he imagined none of them realized it. He had always had to struggle to keep up with Azula, then to follow the Avatar. Now he found himself struggling again, to do both at the same time. The story of his life.

His bird pulled on its lead, and by reflex, Zuko put a hand between the ostrich-horse and its intended victim, deftly dodging its beak and reining the beast in next to him. Only after doing so did he realize the bird's target was that same soldier that had brought the animal up the mountain for him.

"Sir," The man greeted, clearly unhappy, then continued under his breath: "Bird's still a nasty piece of work, I see."

Only a few months ago, the banished teen would have pretended not to hear the comment. Or, if he was having a bad day, Zuko would have berated the soldier for having the audacity to insult his Prince's chosen mount. A few months might as well have been a life-time.

Zuko gave the man a dry chuckle. "Oh, come on soldier. She's just a little testy. Anyway, how would you feel if you were loaded up like a pack animal and led through rain and ankle-deep sludge all…" the ex-prince trailed off, eyes trailing over the man's gear before dropping them back onto the road. "Well, never mind."

The man treated Zuko to a surprised frown at that, and they both were distracted enough by their conversation to almost walk into the men in front of them; men that had come to a sudden halt. Behind them, similar scenes played out, as soldiers could only just stop before they bumped into their predecessors. No call for halt had been issued.

"Now what?" somebody down the ranks growled.

Zuko just grunted, and mounted his bird. Oh, but it was good to get out of the mud!"I'll go see to my dear sister's needs then, shall I?"

He ignored another gruff voice, pretending not to hear that hidden soldier at all; one of his colleagues seemed to understand the blasphemy of his statement well enough, cutting him off half-way, likely with an elbow: "Probably her time of the monttttt—oomph!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing.**

**~Z~**

A strange sense of calm had asserted itself over Zuko, and he considered where it came from as he trotted his ostrich-horse trough the mud, up towards Azula's tank.

Certainly, being good should be its own reward. But, it turned out there was a special bonus to trying to be 'good' in his particular situation. One that Zuko would never have thought of- never would have hoped for, had it not presented itself to him so readily.

_A bonus to doing good within Azula's striking distance - who would have thought it?_

From his Uncle, Zuko knew a great part of 'good', was in – at least outwardly – pretending to be happy and good-natured: trusting, friendly.

Taking these traits to heart, especially when dealing with his sister, resulted in a completely fake - not to mention dangerous - performance on his side. But Zuko told himself that it was not really lying; he was just trying to be amiable. If Azula would ask he'd confess in a second that he was not happy at all. Hell, he'd ask her if she preferred him to scream at her. Zuko was pretty sure that would be easier; more naturally.

However, Azula did not ask. No; when Zuko rode up to her on his ostrich-horse, and with the cheeriest voice he could muster, asked if there was anything he could do for her...

She just twitched her eyebrows.

Then, slowly, still from her perch on top of her tank, she let the spyglass drop from her eye and she turned to regard him with a slight frown.

Who would have ever thought; Zuko's attempts at being amiable would break Azula's perfect façade of calm?

To Zuko, it was a complete reversal of roles; for too, too long he had been the butt of her jokes. Reeled into her ploys and lies although he knew better than to trust her – was close to paranoid around anyone, especially his little sister.

Now, simply by deciding he'd play along and smile at any pitfall she had in store for him, willingly, he seemed to have done the impossible; he was getting under her skin. The thought brought a true smile to Zuko's face, and it, in response, caused his baby sister's frown to deepen.

_'Not nice!' _Zuko had to scold himself, schooling his features.

After all, being good had little to do with people getting what they deserved. No, that was justice; a far easier concept, in Zuko's opinion. But good had to do with, well, him acting nice and friendly and passively letting people do as they pleased.

That's what his Uncle had always done, that's what the Avatar did. It pretty much rubbed him the wrong way, but Zuko was sure that 'good' would rub him the wrong way. Just like the Avatar himself had always grated on Zuko's nerves.

Anyway, he only had to play nice until a certain line was crossed.

Where exactly that line lay was a different problem, but the prince was pretty sure it had to do with other people – preferably nobodies - having their rights squashed. It should not be about Prince Zuko, having his own sensibilities triggered.

Oh yes, being good was _hard_.

But at least it was hard on _Azula_ too; for once, his sister was as far out into uncharted waters as he was.

With a flick of her mane, his sister dismissed any troubling thoughts she might have had, raising a finger to point at a ragged-edge peek of a mountain in the distance. On its top, only just visible, Zuko could discern a shape in orange-yellow clothing. "You said you'd found us the Avatar, brother?"

Azula finally managed her trade-mark smirk, back to her perfect self. "Go get him then, Zuzu."

**~~A~~**

The Avatar was not well. Just riding his sky-bison took almost all the recourses the little air-bending monk had left, so he was pleased when there came an end to it; Appa inched close to the small stone platform atop the highest mountain they could find, and Aang had stepped over, staff in hand. Drained, he quickly settled down in a meditation pose, calming his breath as well as he could, trying to look somewhat hale.

Not that any patient should ever be able to fool his own physician; not about his. - Not a physician worth a dime at least, and definitely not a water-bending healer.

Still, Aang smiled at his friend: "I got this Katara. Go save our friends."

She looked through his charade, of course. Perched atop Appa's head Katara frowned, as that impossibly big, flying beast that was Aang's one true companion floated in the air before him. Worry was plain on her face as she said "How about we change clothes, and I pretend to be you and…"

"Don't be silly, Katara." he cut in, voice grimmer then he had intended. "You cannot fly my glider, and I don't have the strength to save Toph, Sokka and Momo."

Indeed, the water-bender looked chastised, knowing he was right. Aang tried for another hesitant smile. But, Spirits, he hurt!

"It'll be okay, Katara. I'll just glide out of here as soon as they close in on me. I can do that in my sleep."

Half-heartedly, the girl gave him a nod, claiming: "You just head south and I'll pick you up before day-break tomorrow, you hear?"

And Aang nodded, grinning, and watched her back up Appa and fall down to the tree line, then followed them with his eyes along a low, bee-lining trajectory towards the way they had come.

In the far distance, the smoke of Azula's tank was already visible. So Aang watched, and waited, and prayed that his bison had managed to stay out of view. The decoy-action seemed to work tough, as the tank's smoke slowly came closer and closer, and so the young Avatar settled himself into the lotus position and waited.

The air-bender tried to keep his thoughts away from the pain - both the physical, and the mental; he had failed again. And again, a friend had to sacrifice himself for Aang's shortcomings. This time, the casualty was Zuko's kind elderly uncle: a man that had declared for them only minutes earlier had come to their group's aid and provided enough cover for little more than an escape from a full-out defeat.

And Aang – the Avatar, supposedly the undefeatable spirit of the world itself- had nothing to show from the encounter but a wound, a broken spirit, and his enemies newly united against him. Sadness didn't even begin to describe it; in fact, it would not surprise the boy if that soft drizzle of rain that came down on his head right now was a direct result of his mood.

He was, after all, the spirit of the world incarnate.

Not that that supposed fact ever made Aang feel strong, or even knowledgeable: no, only overburdened and completely out of his depth…

.

What seemed only a moment later, his eyes snapped open.

Damn, but it seemed Aang was indeed going to have to make his escape while sleeping. When had he dozed off? A quick scan of the horizon eased his fears however; the tank was a lot closer, but not quite at the foot of his jagged-peak mountain.

Aang shook his head to clear it of sleep, and slapped himself in the face twice for good measure. Then he winced, as his back-muscles, still torn, protested the sudden movement.

"I. Don't. Believe. It!"

Aang's head snapped to the left, finding the source of that raspy voice; likely the reason the air-bender had been startled awake before.

Zuko, prince of the Fire Nation, was in the process of pushing himself up the rocks, up to the Avatar's small perch. One last shove, balancing on hands, and a leg made it up as well. Then, he was standing a mere three feet away, breathing heavily. He was all in green, except for a white bandage wound round his head.

Aang struggled to his feet, using his glider-staff to prop himself up; his feet felt like jelly, and the action left him light-headed; too much, too soon.

"How did you get here so fast?"

The boy-Avatar finally managed, in a sadly transparent bid for time.

The fire-prince threw him an unreadable look through mismatched eyes, and then straightened somewhat from his fighting stance to favor his side; it appeared even Fire Nation royalty could get winded.

"A well-walked ostrich-horse at breakneck speed through the forest and…" another huff "Superior climbing skills."

He swallowed his next breath: ."Seriously, though, this is twice in one day; are you _trying_ to get caught?"

"I passed out!" Aang snapped, feeling defensive in a whole new and different way. "Why are you chasing me anyway? I though you said you were good now?"

The older boy turned to double over, hands on his knees as some sort of coughing fit racked him.

It took Aang a moment to realize he was laughing! Apparently, it was some sort of sick joke to him. The implication was almost too cruel to process.

"You were _lying_?"

If the boy-Avatar's voice broke at the end of that—well, Aang liked to believe the best of people, so he felt he was allowed to at least feel hurt when things turned out differently.

Feel hurt. And betrayed.

With a sudden choke the prince straightened, raising his hands in a frantic wave: "No!No; just a small case of hubris from my side."

Empty hands; no swords, no fire. Aang's dream revitalized, as the elder boy elaborated.

"I should have said, trying to be good; 'trying' the main verb here—it's all a bit more difficult then I imagined. But I am pretty sure you should not be caught, and then Azula set me at you, and I figured you had fallen asleep or something…"

"Passed out." Aang replied, weakly.

"Right; passed out." The fire-bender stepped to the side with a hand-gesture backwards. "So go on, get out of here."

Relief and hope bloomed up from his gut, and Aang could hardly suppress a smile from spreading to his face; but for once, the boy opted for cold reason, stamping on that feeling. He had almost died little over a week ago. And that was, in no small part, thanks to the teen standing in front of him now.

With cool calculation, the Avatar studied the scarred boy's face—ah, but it did not help that the fire-prince looked like an angry wolf-dog staring down a rabbit-doe. And Aang always felt like the rabbit-doe—which was ridiculous, Aang knew. He was the Avatar, for crying out loud! He was the most powerful bender in the _world_, and all that.

But right now, he was just twelve-year old kid: a wounded twelve-year old child.

Aang had too much riding on his life to take foolish chances now; he needed to be sure. "You're letting me go?"

Focusing on the right, unscarred side of the other's face helped. On that side, Zuko did not look 'going-to-kill-everything-in-my-way' angry; more a sort of 'I-knew-it-was-going-to-be-one-of-these-days' grim.

"That's right."

The prince's swords were still in their sheaths on his back. Fire was faster, but surely, this was not some elaborate ploy for the prince to get a free shot at Aang's back? No, Zuko would never do that. That would be…

"Katara said I cannot take your word," the air-bender admitted reluctantly, "because you have lost your honor, and so it doesn't mean anything to lie."

Ah, there that look was again: angry wolf-dog. Or maybe wounded Komodo-bull. Words were spat with sudden vehemence:

"And what do _you _say, _Avatar?_ Do I now need _honor_ too, to be _good?_"

Instinctively, Aang understood the importance of the question. So he thought, long and hard. For once, the young air-bender thought for himself—not repeating what his masters had taught him, or even what his friends said. His smooth face crunched up in thought, the top arrow bunching up as he frowned.

"I do not still do not _fully _understand honor. But I do know what it means to be good. No, I do not think the two are related."

It seemed for once, Aang had given the right answer; that right half of the other's face, the side Aang kept his sights on, relaxed, looking almost pleased.

"So there you go. I'll work on doing the right thing, and you focus on getting the hell out of here." This was accompanied by another hand gesture; down the cliff, to indicate a bird in flight.

One last thing though, Aang considered as he chewed his bottom lip: "And what will Azula say?"

Half a face turned wry: "I imagine she'll say I'm an idiot for falling off a cliff?"

Well, caution be damned: Aang just didn't care anymore. Staff in one hand, the air bender threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around the bigger boy and burying his face in a green earthy shirt.

"I knew you were good! This is so great!"

"Ah?"

"Now we can all be friends! And we can go on picnics! And travel on Appa…"

"Um."

"And, you'll teach me fire bending. Then you can talk to you sister, maybe to your dad too? Stop this useless war, and everyone will be happy!"

Oh, right: _and we'll have dances and parties and frolic in the fields like a bunch of hippies. _Okay; air-bender happy time over, back to reality.

_Not going to happen, Aang._

Trying to bolster himself, Aang looked up.

Zuko had not moved, arms slightly outspread and something close to shock on his face.

"What are you doing, Avat—Aang?"

In his green shirt, Aang thought the fire-prince looked something like an unadorned Christmas-tree, standing like that. With a wipe of eyes on his sleeve, Aang stood back.

"It's called a hug, silly. It's supposed to make you feel better."

"Oh. Huh. Thanks?" fire-benders probably didn't know how to relaxed, but the others stance got less rigid: "For a minute there, I thought I was finally about to witness an offensive air-bending move."

That was an affront. "We were _air benders,_ Zuko! Peace-loving vegetarians? We do not _have_ offensive moves."

But Aang grinned, taking the sting out of his words."Doing good, Zuko. Doing real good; don't sell yourself short, you hear!"

Aang whirled his staff and opened it, turning it into a glider.

Zuko snorted, but stepped back. "I haven't got a clue what I'm supposed to do, and I can't get that relaxing thing to work either."

"That's just you, Zuko. You worry too much." With a giddy laugh, Aang took to air. "What you need is a hobby."

There was a cry, and a scratching sound, but Aang was long gone. For the first time since he had woken up after getting hit by Azula's lightning, the young air-bender actually felt good.


	7. Chapter 7

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing.**

**Special thanks to ****VickyVicarious**** for alfa-ing.**

**This is a partly new, party old and edited version of this chapter.**

**~~Zuko~~**

All it took was one little step backward. It was both the easiest, and the hardest thing Zuko had ever done.

For as simple as that last little step was, every instinct was telling him he should not. He took it anyway, telling himself this was the chosen path, and he was doing good. As he did, the world tumbled and fell apart to splinters. His last thoughts, as he tumbled, clothes and skin snagged by bushes, was that he was lucky there was so much vegetation to cushion his fall.

When consciousness returned, one aching fractal at the time, it was to an undefeatable high: the Avatar approved-was pleased. What was more, the fact that he had woken at all proved that he had again managed to evade Azula's wrath.

Uncle had on occasion suggested to Zuko it was not a good sign when a man was happiest when hurting. But that worrying fact was easily dismissed, as he decided to attribute his bliss to lying in Mai's arms all night.

At any rate, it could have been a whole lot worse: he'd suffered a good amount of scratches, and his right arm ended up in a sling, both elbow and shoulder badly bruised. He was pretty sure several of his ribs were cracked, and the fall had worsened his head; again pounding with insistency. Still, that was pretty much it.

A different nagging kept him restless though: so when the morning came, finally, and he forced his bruised body to his feet, he was hardly surprised to find he had erred. Firstly, getting yourself hurt to evade punishment did not deserve to be called good. Second – and that one only hit him when he found his ostrich-horse gone from its pasture – just because you were already bleeding, did not mean Azula was done breaking things.

This was far from over.

**~~Sokka~~**

It has been said that until a man's basic needs for survival are met, he cannot truly put his mind to higher endeavors such as art or science.

On more than one occasion, Sokka had found this line of reasoning to be very true. And unfortunately he - as a man - had often found quite a few of his basic needs in poor condition:

_Nutrition._

_Sleep._

The need not to be chased around the globe by angry Fire Nation jerks.

As it was, however, sitting in this cave listening to an air-bender's ghost, Sokka did not feel at all hungry. Nor did he feel sleepy, or even chased.

No, Sokka's mind was sharp and calculative as he listened to the results of the research that had consumed the last years of the ghost's life.

The evidence was strong: ancient scrolls telling of floods that had drowned Fire Nation villages when their populace was at the wax and the water-tribe on the wane; earthquakes that had hit air-temples hard when it was the air-nomads that had procreated much faster than conservative earth-villages.

Every time, the Avatar had stepped in, solicited with the spirits, and found an answer. Typically by demanding limited childbirth, or condoning war with the over-reaching nation.

It seemed, however, that the Spirits were well aware that the Avatar had been indisposed for the last hundred years, and so they had practiced patience. Patience that must be strained pretty tightly by now, for stories of the Spirits walking the earth and attacking people had been rare in those days. That had been a last resort.

The ghost – named Kherang – also told of the life and love he had led; it was truly a shame, for the air-bender had had the right idea, surely. When the man had found himself a wife – and a powerful earth-bender at that, he had held hopes that he might still bring to earth a new generation of air benders. But his children, strangely, had all been non-benders. Strange indeed, for it was a well-known fact that bending ran in the genes. A strong bender was likely to have strong bending children. Yet out of his five children, none had been benders. Not in air, not in earth.

Sad, because it made Sokka's problem all the more evident.

Or, cynically, he told himself, it really wasn't really his problem. After all, he was from the water tribe. All the people he had to worry about were either normal, or water-benders. So, unless the fire-nation ended itself and all its fire-benders soon, this ghost's idea of balance would almost guarantee his people would be okay.

No, actually, the one who should be worried was Toph.

She laughed it down though: "Meh, there's still one air-bender left alive: the greatest of all. And, as I am the greatest earth-bender alive, that should keep the both of us nicely balanced."

"And what about your parents?"

"What about them?" But the blind girl's voice broke, and after an oppressive silence, she turned and kicked at a rock. Hard.

**-~Azula~-**

The door to the tank's dining room burst open, revealing her big brother shaking with rage. All three girls looked up from their places at the table; two with surprise, but Azula herself with satisfaction. There he stood: head wrapped in bandages, arm in a sling, looking an overall mess–but finally, blissfully angry.

Now _this _was the brother she had lost three years ago!

Azula felt a happy pang of recognition from her gut, realizing she could, at least, still find ways to rile him up.

Voice rough and tone too loud, he addressed the princess without even using her name: "Where is my bird?"

The princess, of course, kept her cool. It had always produced the best results in the past. Besides, Zuzu didn't really have the right to be mad about this; he _deserved_ it, after that little stunt he played yesterday.

Beside her, Mai feigned disinterest.

_Silly girl._

Like Azula was not completely aware the woman had spent the whole night by his side. The sight had sickened the princess; her brother's head in another girl's lap –not that she would ever want to touch that icky dirt-covered thing that was left of her brother. She just didn't like seeing him with—well, anyone really.

Quiet voices, the scene bathed in the last rays of the setting sun, as Ty Lee did her best to steer Azula clear from the scene; had tried to keep the crazy baby-sister elsewhere occupied while the ex-girlfriend –who was supposed to be loyal only to her princess!–nursed that failed princeling back to his feet.

But Azula had seen and heard more than enough in passing:

"_What happened, Zuko…?"_

_"…fell off the cliff."_

"_My poor Zuko."_

Well, if _that_ wasn't just the kind of sappy display that made a girl want to stick a finger down her throat, Azula really didn't know what was.

Still, one bad turn deserved another. If her brother was set on making her sick, it only seemed fair to return the favor. And if he thought a few bruises and a sprained elbow from the fall excused him from botching up catching the Avatar, he really was a fool.

Zuko would soon find out.

Said brother was now shoving the man on duty at the door roughly away with his good arm. He stepped past the metal hatch, repeating:

"Where is _my bird_?"

Azula remained seated, barely containing her smirk. Now this was the little Zuzu she had known and loved; their gazes locked, and both siblings engaged in the old and sacred art of trying to set fire to the other using only their eyes.

The young fire-princess loved this part.

She could do this all day.

And for once, it seemed her brother felt the same way.

Her two 'friends', unfortunately, seemed unappreciative of their little eye-to-eye. Mai began blowing heaving sighs that were supposed to indicate boredom and Ty Lee even started fidgeting. With her own sigh Azula signaled the staring contest's finality, ands stood to scoop up broth into bowls.

"Ah, Zuzu! You got my dinner invitation, I see. Sit down, we are having stew."

That lovely play of emotions on his face, only accentuated by their father's 'gift', as he struggled with and gave in to anger never ceased to entertain her. Hands slammed onto the table, causing bowls and pot to jump.

"I do not want _stew, _I want my bird."

Her delicate eyebrow arched, as she struck a pose.

"What is the difference?" she said, and wondered if he would get the hidden meaning. "Also, I have a letter from Father. Here, take your helping and I shall read it to you."

Azula held out the bowl, and Zuko took one look at the pot, then ground his teeth.

"It is ostrich-horse stew, isn't it?"

If he still didn't know, her smile should tell him enough.

With a sigh, the banished prince deflated; all fight going out of him unnervingly quickly.

"Damn it, 'Zula. I _liked_ that bird."

He accepted the stew though, and meekly sat down across her to spoon up several bites before even noticing his sister's scowl. Azula had not expected that; he had _cared _for the bird, had even admitted as much. The least he could do was blow up in her face. That's what she had planned for. Azula didn't like it when things went differently than planned.

No matter.

She was still dictating the rules of this game. She was still in control; it was just time for her next move early.

"Father sent us a letter." She repeated, when Zuko had made it halfway through his stew.

"Oh?"

Her brother obviously had not even registered her words before.

_Poor Zuzu. Such a limited mind._

"He has, and I shall read it to you." A delicate rasp of her voice: "Congratulations on taking Ba Sing Se, knew you could do it...blah, blah. Iroh reached our capital safely, blah, blah. Oh, yes. This is the part I wanted to read to you. Ty Lee?"

Holding the scroll up for the pink-haired girl, Azula unobtrusively put her hand over the last lines of writing as the circus-artist obediently started reading out what it said.

"Um. As for traitors and other criminals: I trust you, as my daughter, to use your own judgment in these matters. As for–"

The scroll was snapped away from Ty Lee again, and Azula all but beamed. "So. I think that makes it official. You are working for me now."

Her brother blinked at her stupidly, and Azula waited for his – sadly rather slow– brain to catch up to reality. Well, at least herein Zuzu was acting exactly as she had predicted. Her smirk widened as she said "I have some new set of clothes for you too, brother."

She indicated the Fire Nation red stack of clothes on a chair. Red: it was a promotion, of sorts.

_From traitor to servant._

"Congratulations; you are now officially my Scout–and I am setting you to track the Avatar."

She paused to eye him, feeling both parts malicious and victorious.

"Do take a bath before you change, Zuzu."

Sadly, either her words simply were not imparting their meaning on the grey matter that made up her brother's mind, or he was so bereft of any honor he simply didn't care.

"That's all father had to say to me; about me?"

Again, the princess felt a little disappointed at his lack of emotion; Zuzu had been _so much better_ at fire-works three years ago. Still, Azula was the one with the nerves of steel. If he wanted to play it cool, she would accommodate:

"I'm afraid so. Harsh, is it not? Makes my heart cry out. How is yours?"

"Bleeding raw." He seemed genuine enough, though his tone reeked of sarcasm. "Mind if I see that letter?"

Actually, Azula _did_ mind. A spark from her fingers, and the parchment went up in flames.

"Oh, sorry Zuzu. How clumsy of me!"

He grunted. "Not like you to lose focus like that, `Zula." He hesitated briefly. "Mind if I take seconds?"

Clamming down on her annoyance, the princess graciously dished out another bowl. She told herself everything was going according to plan. Azula had, as usual, done all she set out to. And if meeting her objectives didn't yield the pretty light show she had imagined, it really shouldn't bother her. She held all the strings; even if her puppets didn't feel like dancing today.

_Control_.

At least her brother would not be reading the next part of that letter; the part that detailed their Uncle's detainment.

And his subsequent escape.

**~Zuko~**

When Zuko fingered the soft silken clothing in his hands he could not help the wry smile that crept up his face.

This was Azula adding insult to injury. The newly-appointed scout supposed he should have seen that coming. But even if he had not, Zuko was pretty proud on getting a reign on his temper. Although, truth be told, it was likely the injuries he had suffered from throwing himself off the mountain had something to do with that; it was hard to hold on to rage when your ribs screamed out in pain at every aggravated breath.

Regardless, Zuko was supposed to look for the good in every situation, so: hey, wow! Real silk and a free meal!

It was a shame about his bird though; she had been such a tough little hen. But she was dead now, and so beyond his protection. It just meant that Azula had squandered one of the few handles she had on him. There was Uncle, of course, but he was miles away, and his jailors were not officially on her payroll. There was no doubt in Zuko's mind that Azula could make bad things happen to Iroh; but not easily, and not too often.

As for the bird, at least she had done some good in death.

_Food._

Azula did not understand. _NO_, Zuko thought, strangely giddy at the idea that his sister was incapable of something. _She cannot understand._

It was a strange, alien realization; they were no longer the children they had been three years ago.

Or at least, Zuko was not.

Azula had never gone hungry a day of her life. She had never spent nights scouring fields for something edible or days begging out in the street for a handout. Azula had never had to make the calculation on what was needed to survive, had never had to divide too-spare rations between herself and a loved one.

Even if it had ever come to any of that, Azula not have felt guilt for accepting far more than Iroh's share. Zuko had felt it though; it had eaten away at him, and not even his uncle's arguments on the needs of a growing boy contrary to an old man's ample gut had been capable of quenching the shame that went with it.

Nor would Azula ever know what it meant when people in a kindred situation had offered them food, a place to sleep or even a hand in friendship. Azula could never understand that those acts, once experienced in person, could give rise to a whole new meaning to the word _honor_.

Zuko owed a debt to filthy earth-peasants Azula would likely squash under her heel like insects at the first opportunity.

And, though the disowned prince knew it would be wrong to wish his last few years on anyone, he knew she was less for it.

She could not understand him. Not anymore.

He almost felt sorry for his baby sister.

Until he reached what was left of his tent.


	8. Chapter 8

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing.**

**NOTE: the FIRST part of this chapter used to be in chapter 7. The 2ndpart is COMPLETELY new. So, don't skip the second part just because you know the first. Yeah. That's all I had to say. Thank you!**

**~~Toph~~**

_I am Toph 'cause that sounds like tough._

_I am Toph 'cause that sounds like tough._

Guilt.

Because Toph knew it was wrong: deep down. The old ghost presented them with a picture that suggested elemental opposites would share a similar fate. The story he told suggested all Earth Kingdom citizens were in danger of extinction. About to be rooted out, by the hands of spirits if it came to that. A terrible, terrible fate.

And yet, Toph could not help but worry more about the badger-moles then her own parents.

Really.

And didn't that make her a _selfish, vicious_ little girl?

But if all the sky bison were really gone, would the badger-moles, too…?

Toph didn't even want to think about it; her parents might have provided the genetic material, but when it came to it, it was the blind, underground creatures she thought of as her family. Them, and the gAang, of course. Still, the Avatar and the water-siblings could take well enough care of themselves, when it came down to it.

If the same could be said for the poor badger-moles remained to be seen…

Toph didn't want to think on it; and she definitely didn't want to talk about it. So she circumvented any questions best she could, and let Sokka and the ghost discuss the problem almost in private. Still, it was a relief when she felt the triple pair of legs on that last sky-bison when he landed out in the clearing.

"Our ride is here."

Sokka went into a near-frenzy, as he tried to take every scroll and book the old ghost had collected. He also started to make a list with all the names of Kherang's children, and their last known place of residence. Toph made herself useful by complaining that she had never much 'seen' the use of scrolls and pointing out books she 'thought looked pretty'. At least she still had it – funny!

When Sokka made it clear he did not appreciate her humor, she went ahead to 'see' Aang and Katara, and to make sure they didn't leave again, thinking she and Sokka had maybe left in some other manner.

Toph dragged her feet along the trail to the landing-site, wondering how sky-bison reproduced. They seemed to be mammals; so it would likely take at least two animals. It was just so sad, but still, there were more important matters right now; like winning a war. Toph made a mental note to ask Aang about it though, one day.

Her stomach dropped to her proverbial shoes (oh, she just cracked herself up today!), when she found only Katara. She had dropped off Appa's back, movements stiff and jerky as they were when the water-bender was mad.

"Where's Twinkle-Toes?"

Katara's displeasure became a tangible thing: "Out playing decoy while I rescue you two."

"Oh." Toph made her voice light, trying to soothe the little mother-duck-hen. "I'm sure he's fine."

It was, apparently, not the right thing to say; Katara went from grouchy to full-blown motherly rage: "If he isn't I am holding you two responsible! You should have just caught Zuko's legs and made a run for it, but nooo! Sokka just had to have some kind of knightly duel with the guy, and you just let him."

Toph could have pointed out that she _had_ tried to catch the prince's legs, but had been unable due to her injury – which still smarted, thank you very much!

But that would be admitting to weakness.

"I can see that you are having your _'special moon-time'_ for the third time this month." She bit out to water-mom, "Let me just get _Sokka_ for you; he understands all that girl stuff so much better than I can."

And so Toph turned around again, and trudged back the trail to the cave.

'_This is getting stupid_.' She told herself. _'I can't just go walking up and down the trail until I feel up to talking to them again.'_

Well, she could, but it sounded a bit weak and girly. Or at least mope-y.

_Toph the mope-y earth-bender._

Or worse: _The Bawling Bandit._

That wouldn't do.

She found Sokka at the cave's exit, lumbering under a true mountain of scrolls and books.

At least he was too busy to ask Toph about her mope-y-ness.

Again, Toph shuffled up the path. It was a boring little path, really. Away from the cave, entrance shielded from the outside by trees and vines. She led the way along the single track, picking branches out of the way for Sokka, and then releasing them a moment too early so they'd hit him on his over-burdened arms.

He complained, she laughed. It was his fault Toph was feeling down anyway, so Sokka could at least work on cheering her back up.

Past the spot where meat-man had fought the fire-prince and…

"Hey." Toph paused. "You dropped one."

"No, you keep dropping them on me Toph, I…" Sokka seemed confused. "Sorry?"

"A book." Toph picked up the offending object. "You dropped one of your books."

"How can you find something I drop if you are walking in front?" Some shifting as the water-tribesman unburdened himself to take the offered piece. "This isn't one of mine... it's a fire-bending book."

Silence: then the thumbing of pages. Toph wasn't really in a hurry to get back, but: "You're not going to _read _the whole thing here, right now, are you?"

"Toph, this book teaches basics in fire-bending. Do you know what this means?"

"We were wrong, and not all fire-benders are too stupid to read?" she inquired lightly.

Her comment was rewarded with a chuckle.

"No; -well, yeah, that too. But this means we don't even need a fire-bending teacher for Aang!"

"Great." Then she deflated. "We'll tell him when we find him."

A flutter in his heart-beat told Toph the statement was received as badly as she had feared.

"Aang's not here? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Some shuffling and grunting as the boy finally managed to gather all his 'paper treasure'.

"Well, come on! Hurry up Toph!"

Annoyed, the blind girl scowled in the direction of retreating feet.

"He's just playing decoy. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Regardless, she picked up her pace, and quietly clambered onto Appa's back as the water-siblings packed up the books and scrolls while loudly exchanging information. Voices rose louder and louder as Appa took to the sky, like they were having trouble hearing each other. Katara blamed Sokka for him and Toph getting left behind in the first place and Sokka accused Katara right back for leaving Aang unprotected.

It suited Toph fine; listening to arguments always cheered her up.

They were in the air for a while when Sokka's tone turned oddly quiet.

"I can't come with you guys yet though. I have to check on something first."

"You what?!"

It was out of the earth-bender's mouth before she could stop herself. Katara's voice had joined in with hers though.

"This is important. Please put me down somewhere around here." Sokka's tone was not one of argument; he had obviously already made up his mind. "And you guys go ahead and take care of Aang."

Toph did understand what the young warrior was on about: finding the ghost's descendants. Find, hopefully, new air-benders. It should be important to her too; it was important to her!

Still, she complained: "But what are we supposed to do without you, Sokka? You're the idea man, and we have no plan. Except to run away, and that is NOT a plan."

The boy remained quiet for a moment: "Pick up Aang, then head north-east and cross the river leading to the Northern Air-Temple first; the marshes there should slow Azula's tank down. Once you're sure Azula and her army crossed, go west and ask Teo and co. at the Northern Air-Temple for supplies. Just make sure you're not followed quite all the way up there, lest we endanger our friends. I'll be waiting at the Serpent's Pass shores in two weeks."

Toph didn't know why Katara didn't argue her brother's decision– to go alone even. Toph wanted to.

She wanted to, but found she could not.

**~~-M-~~**

Lieutenant Malkun was about to disturb a fire-bender that already had a flame ready in hand. A royal fire-bender at that; Malkun had to question his own sanity. The boy as of yet seemed undecided if he should fling the ball of fire at a target or simply keep staring into it, but the lieutenant had had enough dealings with the sister to know royals could make up their minds about such matters – usually not in man's favor - in the blink of an eye.

But Lieutenant Malkun had watched placidly as Captain Ghoza and his cronies had pillaged their way through this boy's scant belongings. And now, the look of open shock as the boy stood staring was enough to guilt-trip the old lieutenant to come to his prince's aid.

Not to mention that Malkun had also seen the chef take a certain ostrich-horse from the pasture. He felt at least someone should apologize to the boy.

"I am awfully sorry about your bird, sir."

The flame blinked out, and the boy turned, a set of red clothing pressed between his chest and bandaged arm. "Soldier. Someone seems to have sent a herd of pig-boar across my campsite. Could you direct me to the washing area so I can fix my sleeping bag?"

"Name's Malkun, sir. And I'll do better than that. Let me and my friends take care of your things, if it pleases my Lord."

The scrutinizing gaze that the Prince turned on the man then had Malkun more than a little worried. Pale gold eyes narrowed in study; such eyes were a sure sign of the royal family. At court they liked to call them dragon eyes, and suggested they were a sign of strong fire-bending genes.

But Malkun was a man of the people, and had grown up on now-forbidden nursery rhymes that suggested something entirely different about such eyes.

Perhaps the old soldier should not have been so quick to offer himself; after all, it would not do to forget whose brother this was. Lieutenant Malkun might not enjoy being subordinate to the Princess, but mayhap the conclusion that this boy was any better was premature.

"I'm no one's Lord anymore, Soldier." Malkun realized belatedly that the Prince's tone was one of mild amusement; whatever assessment had been made, Malkun could only assume he had passed the test. The boy let part of the uniform fall to hold it out in front of him, claiming with a self-mocking grin: "It seems I am now Azula's scout."

The Lieutenant stood swallowing bile for too long; this was an atrocity! Surely, this form of debasement was outlaw? Had something like this happened to his princess, he and the rest of their hundred would have demanded to give their lives in ritual suicide to lessen the shame. And (it had to be said) most of their hundred didn't even like Azula.

Well, that explained the stare at least; between such an insult and the damage done to the prince's (for whatever anyone said, the boy was a prince by blood) belongings, he might well expect another underhanded attack from his sister.

There was only one thing the soldier could say to stop staring: "I must say you are taking all this in surprisingly good humor."

A shrug. "It'll be my second honest job ever, after tea serving. Got that one off my Uncle of course; thank the Spirits for Nepotism, right Soldier?"

His Uncle—if only Prince Iroh had become Fire Lord, surely none of them would be in this mess now. Malkun had been a raw recruit when the siege of Ba Sing Se had been broken, but he remembered the hushed voices of hope before: that soon Iroh would win the battle, and return home to be coronated. That the war would be over, and Azulon's hard-handed ways would end.

Sadly, Ozai had become the next Fire-Lord, and the war did not end.

"How has the Dragon of the West been?"

"Didn't Azula mention? I betrayed him and he got shipped off to the capital for justice."

The princess did mention it; rather loudly and at every occasion. Malkun praised himself lucky to have had to listen to the story more than once now;if he hadn't been prepared for the shock, he might have mistaken the boy's tone for flippant.

"But you traveled with him? Before that."

A roll of his golden eyes: "Oh yes. For three years General Iroh lived aboard a run-down ship and dedicated his time to teaching some ungrateful idiot about fire-bending, philosophy and life in general. Do you know what I've learned?"

"Um." Malkun was a loyal soldier, whatever some might think. Blaspheming royalty was not his thing.

"I can set my breath on fire." Another shrug, though Malkun was starting to think the boy would accompany the same gesture to say,'Oh look, the sky is falling.'

"That's it. That's all that stuck. What a waste of resources, aye soldier?" Awkwardly, the prince set about his bedraggled belongings. "What do you suppose they were looking for?"

Malkun hesitated, unsure if the question was serious, and if it warranted a true answer.

"To take what is dear to you, sir."

The prince made a sound in the back of his throat: "Then I fear I have disappointed my sister yet again, for there was nothing left to take."

"That doesn't matter." the old lieutenant ventured. "The important thing is you suffer, you see; she is angry..."

"Azula? Angry? Soldier, my sister never loses her temper. She doesn't get angry."

"As you say, sir."

Another one of those weird looks from the prince, as he took long to compose an answer. Malkun was about to make another run for it when Zuko spoke:

"My apologies, soldier. I did not mean to reprimand. I simply have trouble mending what you say to my outdated views on my sister. If you have ideas on the matter, I would love for you to share them with me."

Malkun swallowed, hanging on to the peasant's wisdom that had gotten him through to this day: 'If you are not dead yet, you must be doing something right.' "Well, sir. It is my belief the princess has a temper on par with the most famous of your family. She simply hides it better behind her smiles."

"Really?"

The prince's face broke out into that smile again, the one that had Malkun want to run for cover: one half scarred and frozen in apathy, the other half a duplicate of that predatory grin his sister favored. "Lieutenant…?"

"Yes sir?"

"Don't you think today is going to be a beautiful day?"

It was true, Malkun decided: they were all crazy; the entire royal family was comprised of the insane! As the ancient wisdom went, their fire must have eaten at their brains. Still, as royals went, Malkun preferred this type of insanity to Azula's crueler kind.


	9. Chapter 9

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing!**

**~~Z~~**

"Zuko!"

"What are you doing?"

The ex-prince looked up, and found Mai staring down at him from one of the larger komodo-rhinos, face just shy of her usual bland apathy.

Zuko truly saw no harm in his actions, not really. And yet the whole situation made him feel guilty somehow; like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or maybe if he'd been caught in his parent's master bedroom, dressing up in one of his mother's silk dresses.

Yes; the last situation would have better explained the tone of Mai's voice: "What are you doing?"

Well, it was actually a fair question.

And, in all honesty, Zuko was not quite sure how it had happened either. He was not, after all, one very good at polite conversation.

When one of the soldiers close by had wondered out loud how much longer they would have to track through Earth Kingdom sludge, Zuko had simply thought to offer a little insight by sharing his own experiences. After all, it had taken Zuko over two years just to find the boy.

The silent question on everyone's lips then, was of course why he had not managed to catch the Avatar then and there. So, without further prompting, the teen that had hunted the Avatar across the globe had launched into what he had thought was a very dry and boring factual retelling of his adventures.

The soldiers, however, seemed to find them amusing to no end. They had tried to mask their giggles at first. But amazingly Zuko had felt no shame at their laughter. He felt so detached from this obsessed boy he had once been, that it hardly felt like these things had happened to him at all. Or, perhaps as he no longer had to be a Prince he didn't have to worry about honor anymore.

After Zuko had smiled and shrugged at their first snickers, they soon engaged in open laughter.

"So I was actually sure I finally had the little pest at that abbey." Zuko continued, feeling strangely encouraged by crowd he was gathering. "But with all that perfume, the shirshu went mad; itstarted flicking its tongue out at everyone and everything. Uncle got hit. Needless to say, I did too - on a rather embarrassing part of my anatomy.

"Then, the building caught fire. Neither of us could move, and we hadn't been able to bring backup. For a moment, I thought me and Uncle were going to burn to death. That would have been rather an ironic end for a pair of fire-benders. Especially as we - well, alright, I -caused that fire.

"However - to my immense embarrassment - the Avatar and his boy-scout friends went and rescued us."

Zuko bit back a grimace, pulling a leg from the mud. It was not due to the men's near-hysterics. He'd been convinced both his legs were fine, after the fall. But after so many hours of walking, all sorts of small injuries started to act up. Talking did take his mind off of it though.

"The worst part was that when the poison cleared, my body still didn't work right. I couldn't feel- well, much not much of anything below my waist. I figured I could ignore it, and it would go away on its own. It didn't."

This seemed to amuse the men further, so he figured he might as well elaborate.

"I couldn't fight, I couldn't train, Agni, I could hardly walk - though I could disguise that well enough. Uncle kept worrying about me, though; he knew something was up as soon as I opted out of practice the next morning. But I was too embarrassed to say…

"Well, in the end he tricked me. Invited me for tea and put ice in the pillow I sat on. When I didn't notice sitting in wet ice-water for half an hour, he called me out on his suspicions and incited the ship's the healer. Who then set out to manhandle parts of me I would rather not have any man touching and gave me a lecture on the dangers of ki-blockage in combination with poison."

The chuckling went up to actual guffaws this time. Still, for prudence's sake, the ex-prince censored the part of the story - where he went and rescued the Avatar out of Fire Nation hands as the blue spirit.

"A little while later I found the Avatar again. That time, he asked me if we could be friends."

"What did you do, pr—eh Zuko?" Lieutenant Malkun again, who had been at his side since yesterday.

He and his friends had divided Zuko's meager belongings, and stashed them into their own packs. For once, the teen was content to just be grateful; he had enough trouble keeping tempo without getting winded, and breathing too deep still hurt. Also, he was pretty sure his shoulder wouldn't take kindly to a rucksack.

"What would you have done? I shot a fireball at his face, of course."

When the soldiers had quieted, Zuko added, quietly: "He gave me a wounded turtle-duck look over it and flew off. He really isn't a bad kid. In fact, if he'd been brought up on Fire Nation honor instead of all that life-is-sacred stuff, I don't doubt he would have accompanied me home willingly out of his own sense of duty."

And that was when Mai suddenly called his name in an accusing tone:

"Zuko!"

**~~M~~**

"What are you doing?"

Mai stared, down from her saddle, in utter shock and confusion.

After hours and hours of sitting around in a jolting and shaking tank, Mai had decided to get some fresh air. Well, she was just so incredibly bored.

As was protocol, one of the soldiers had supplied her with a Komodo-mount the moment she had stuck her head out of the still-moving vehicle. Then, as she had nothing better to do, Mai had thought she might as well go and look for Zuko.

Alright, so she was _glaringly_ obvious. In her defense, she thought she was entitled to worry. Zuko had taken quite the fall just two days before.

But, it seemed she should not have had to worry.

Though, on the other hand… perhaps Zuko had fallen victim to some form of brain damage?

A quick scan of the lines had failed to yield that familiar scowl-and-scar, and so Mai had had to ride around the troops. As she did though, she stumbled on a group in the back. They were not keeping lines very professionally, and they were also talking way too much. Every now and then, the whole bunch of them broke out in that low-toned laughter of men, only one or two female voices breaking the baritone drone.

When she drew closer, curious, she to her amazement found _Zuko_ at the center of this irregularity.

"Doing…?" he asked, looking up at her with some confusion, apparently pleading innocence and ignorance.

"Well, I was just telling a story actually."

Mai would have liked to gape, but settled on a more neutral slack-jaw. She rode her komodo-rhino closer, hardly noticing soldiers left and right jumping to get out of her way and back in rank. "Since when do you tell stories, Zuko? Spirits, since when do you talk to anyone?"

Her childhood crush shrugged, slowing down. The action allowed the last of the men to pass so they were effectively alone; left behind. One soldier threw a last, wary glance from her to Zuko, and then ran to join the ranks.

"I thought I'd adapt to my new environment," he supplied, so dreadfully reasonable. "Try something new for a change. I thought Uncle would have approved."

The Zuko Mai had known, three years ago, was never reasonable.

He was proud, dutiful—if perhaps a little spoiled and easy to anger. Eager to please, that too, yes; but never complacent- he would never have just...

"So, you're just going to accept this?"

Mai felt a little chuckle tear itself from her throat; laughter born of desperation. "You really are just going to roll over and take this like a wart-dog? What happened to never give up without a fight?"

Another one of those irritatingly calm shrugs. "What would you have me do? Challenge Azula to an Agni Kai? All that would achieve is get me killed. No, I think 'pick your battles wisely' would be a better proverb today, do you not agree?"

The road was silent; the noise of men squishing through mud was falling away in the distance. Into the dreary, wet air, Mai breathed: "Zuko, your sister has stolen your birthright, and once she captures the Avatar, your last chance to rectifying it all will be gone."

"Oh, I don't know, Mai. I am sure there are _downsides_ too. But—capture the Avatar?" Suddenly the boy she thought she knew sported a wolfish grin. "Are you sure she can?"

"You know better than anyone." Mai's face turned smooth just at the thought of the princess. "Azula can do anything. And she definitely has the resources."

Zuko made a humming noise. "I am sure Uncle would have supplied me with an allegory about fishing nets with meshes too big for their intended catch. As it is, the Earth Kingdom is a big place. And the Avatar is an awfully small boy." he held out a hand. "Come, walk with me?"

"She put you in charge of finding him Zuko. If…"

"She put me in charge of _tracking_ the Avatar. That is something completely different from finding—though I don't doubt we will run into him again."

"This is serious, Zuko." Mai turned up her nose. "Besides, I do not like mud."

"Uncle always said, the best girls are the once that know how to appreciate a good bit of mud." Eyes turned up in thought. "And then they box in it? No, that's not right. Judo? Knife-fight..? Something…"

Mai slid off to punch him lightly on the arm; the good one. "Your uncle is a dirty old man. You need to stop obsessing over him."

He shrugged again; but not as lightly as before. "How can I not? For his fate I _do_ feel terribly responsible."

~~K~~

Katara was in a foul mood. It occurred to the water bender that she was, indeed, just like the mother goose-duck Toph had on occasion compared her with. It also occurred to her, - but never to Toph – that someone needed to mother this bunch of ingrates. No, Katara was just fine with having to be the only grown-up in the group. The only one with enough responsibility to, as the earth bender put it, mother them all.

No, her problem was that all of Katara's chicks were headstrong and individualistic to a suicidal amount. How in Yui's name was she supposed to keep her family safe, if one after the other went out on a righteous and dangerous crusade to save the world?

Even that she could have accepted. Katara was an easy-going person; she was actually okay with the crusading part, to a certain degree. And she was all for heading out to save the world.

But it would be nice if all those she felt responsible for would at least head on their quest in the same direction. - So she could protect them all from harm. Instead of having to flurry after them all in a state of near-panic as they all ran their separate ways, straight into danger.

Well, her brother heading off on his own had left her fuming already, especially as they had yet to establish Aang's safety. And Katara supposed she should not have nagged Toph about as much as she did; but when the earth-girl had joked about wanting to head off in her own direction on some crazy quest to save sky-bison and badger-moles… well, let's just say the two girls were no longer on speaking terms.

Even when they had found Aang, perfectly safe and in a better mood then he had been in days, Katara had been unable to break out of her rut.

And so now the two girls sat at the farthest corners of Appa's saddle: Katara at the front, holding the reigns for show, Toph way in the back, staring at nothing. Animosity was thick in the air; so thick it almost make Katara feel guilty. Yet Aang sat between them, oblivious to any tension, thoroughly engrossed in the little fire-bending book Sokka had found him.

They were flying north across the marshes as Sokka had suggested. Intelligently, Katara knew the princess was following them again. But her tank was little more than a smocking plume on the horizon, so the threat was far from their minds.

At long last, Aang lowered his text: "This book is a little disturbing."

"Of course it's disturbing," Katara chided without thinking. "It's a Fire Nation propagandist schoolbook."

"Yeah. So I was kind of expecting the whole 'fire is superior' thing." Aang sighed slowly. "What I wasn't expecting was how seriousit all is."

The air bender leafed through the pages, reading at random: "A good morning exercise is calling such a flame from the horse-riding stance and both student and flame holding completely still at least two hours. Both bender and flame should remain motionless throughout the exercise." He thumbed on a bit farther, then read out again: "As this next exercise requires both bender and flame to move, it is mandatory that it is only executed under the strict supervision of a teacher, lest discipline runs slack and students spent their time indulging in games rather than work."

Exasperated, the Avatar closed the book: "It just goes on like that: discipline, discipline, stick to the rules, work hard, blah, blah, blah... this book is supposed to be written for young children, just starting out in bending. There isn't any fun in here at all."

Katara just stared, unsure on how to answer that; after a while though, it was Toph that came with a hesitant reply.

"The Fire Nation massacred both the air-people - known for their freedom, and the dragons - the legendary 'tricksters of the sky'. Add to that the way they've been trying to take over the world, they're obviously set on rooting out all freedom and fun from the world. Is it really that much of a surprise?"

"I know that." Aang sighed. "But they were so different a hundred years ago. They used to be a fun people, you know. I don't mean to offend, Toph, but right now, the Fire Nation is more rigid than even the earth-people were in my time."

This time, Katara did jump in, with her own peace offering: "I don't know how Ba Sing Se was a hundred years ago, but I imagine they were less rigid too. And let's not forget the North-Pole; completely stuck on tradition and rules. Maybe all this is just what happens when the balance is upset. Maybe it's because air - the element of freedom - has been missing for such a long time."

Aang looked thoughtful, even dour: "If that's true, then we have even more work to do then we initially thought."

"Oh, cheer up, twinkle-toes." Toph was smirking now. "If that's true, then when the war is over, you, me and Sokka will just have to re-introduce the world to the wonderful art of prank-pulling."

"Yeah." Aang sighed once more, but then he broke into that ear-to-ear grin. "Yeah, Katara too! We can keep traveling the world, the four of us. And go on a mission to restore fun."

**~~S~~**

The next day was the second day of Sokka's very fruitless and dangerous trek across earthen towns.

With a sigh, the water-tribesman went back to thumbing through his scribbled notes. The list detailed the names of the air-bending ghost's children and the few grandchildren that had been born to him before his death. When drawing the notes, Sokka had kept open more than enough room to add notes and names and whatever else he might find out during his travels.

So far, the pages were still a discerning virginal blank; hardly any info had been added since he had left that hidden cave yesterday.

Sokka actually thought he was having an uncanny amount of trouble finding Kherang's descendants. –Seriously, it shouldn't be that hard, right? He had their names, their last place of residence. Even if all the air-bender's children were dead, then at least his grand-children should still be around.

But, no.

Perhaps it was their nomad blood, but none of the five children had stayed in the small, nameless village that had become home to the air bender and his earth-bending wife. Sokka had actually gone from house to house, asking for any information. He had only been met with distrustful stares and apathy. Most citizens argued they had never even heard the five names he tried. The few that admitted knowing Kherang's children told him they had long since moved. But all professed no knowledge on where they had gone.

Another glare at the list; Kherang's three oldest children had been married at the time of his death. The oldest had been considering relocating with his young family somewhere to the south. That was still his only lead, and so Sokka started walking down the road, out of this unfriendly little village in which no one ever heard anything or ever met anyone.

That was the fruitless part.

The dangerous part Sokka only ran into a few days later.


	10. Chapter 10

**Special Thanks to Gift Of Dragons for Beta-ing.**

_**Flashback: ~~Azula~~ 6 years ago.**_

"_Or what?"_

_She studied him from her crouched position, leaving her challenge to hang between them. A mocking half-smile played on her lips. She was eight, already brimming with the confidence her status and abilities brought her. Zuko, two years her elder, was already well aware he would never live up to the expectations placed on him. _

_Not like Azula would. _

_For half a minute, the only sound between them was that high-pitched gasping out from under the palm she kept planted firmly in the mud. There was a roll of the shoulders, and Zuko deliberately planted his feet apart. _'That's it; come on. Take me. I wanna go again. I want to fight _you'._

"_Or I'll tell mom."_

_Azula only missed one beat before she covered her disappointment with rancorous laughter. "Oh please! You really are pathetic, tattle-tale! Well go on then; see if you can even find her before this beast here croaks." _

_Dad was right. He really was a pathetic, weak disappointment of a son. No wonder she was not allowed to play with him._

'He can only drag you down, my daughter.'

_There was a slow intake of breath, as her big brother deliberately paced himself. _

"_This is unseemly conduct for a princess. Let him go before he suffocates."_

_She felt her eyes narrow, that feeling in her chest like she was ready to explode—but Azula would not. Though she knew he would not attack her; the battle was against his own temper now, and Zuko hated to lose. Perhaps he really had finally learned his lesson, or perhaps he was too tired from his own training sessions to even entertain the thought of having half a chance. _

_No; more likely it was because both their parents disapproved of the siblings actually coming to blows. Ursa because she hated her little darling boy hurt, their dad because he seemed convinced Zuzu's stupid would somehow rub off on his little princess. But if Zuzu refused to land the first blow, there were plenty of other ways to humiliate him. _

"_What's the magic word?" _

_There was a forlorn sigh. Yet her brother did always feel ever so responsible. Perhaps that's why the servants preferred him over her. _Fools!_ Like his weakness could protect them._

"_Please?"_

_Ah. And sometimes it could._

_With a grin, Azula released the muddy, messy tangle of hair, allowing the head attached to escape. A page's ink-black form - only a little taller then she - pulled free from the mire. He did not spare a glance to his rescuer, nor to his would-be executioner. With panicked-dazed eyes he crawled away, panting. Then he made it to his feet, stumbling, and ran as fast as a boy his age could. _

_Azula watched his retreating form through the gardens, chucking softly. _

"_There you go, Zuzu. Wasn't that easy?" Then, she let her voice fill with malice: "Just make sure those pathetic servants know this; next time one fails to address me by my proper titles I will not be as merciful."_

**~~Z~~**

It took a corpse nearly squashing him to sober Zuko to the enormity of his task.

And really, looking back Zuko thought he should have known he had it too easy. The days were passing in a happy, easy bliss in which he either walked amused the soldiers with tales of the Avatar and Uncle, or simply talked with Mai. At the best of times, he did all at the same time.

That one morning he walked into the town on which outskirts they had camped, summoned by his sister. He wasn't really sure where he was supposed to go, but soon he found a little church dedicated to the Spirits. Its oversized doors stood wide, and within he saw two familiar figures.

When they turned to him, Mai's blank look gave the disowned prince pause.

"Zuko!" Ty Lee laughed nervously. "Come inside, will you?"

He hadn't even been aware of dropping into a defensive stance. Yet he refused to climb the white marble steps without an explanation: "Where is Azula?"

"Up on the roof. Come inside, Zuko." Mai's voice was as deadpan as her face, but he knew her well enough to know this was her at her most desperate. Almost unconsciously Zuko moved up to obey her plea.

Cold dread made him ask more: "What is she doing up on the—!"

Reflexes honed through the years made Zuko pull his Dao's free of their scabbard and turn fast enough for him to get a face full of blood. When there was no further sound, the fire bender chanced to wipe at his face with a sleeve, and look down. Dead eyes stared up from a mangled corpse, prone and twisted, pushed into the stone steps.

Ty Lee laughed her empty, nervous laugh again: "Interrogating a witness. I guess she is done now."

Horror-struck, Zuko looked from the body, back to the two girls. Only a few of the man's injuries could be explained from the fall. Moreover, the man hadn't even screamed when falling down. "Why didn't you two stop her?"

Mai didn't even twitch. "Are you kidding, Zuko? You are her _brother,_ and even you can't get into Azula's way without getting hurt."

**~~Az~~**

The princess made her way down the stairs, wiping her fingers on a towel, and found her three most intimate waiting on her. It was pleasant; having Zuko complement her girls did feel right. Though, he was hardly playing the perfect soldier: his back was turned to his princess as he stood rigidly, looking down at the corpse on the stairs, a few paces away.

Leave it to her brother to be shocked by something as ordinary as a peasant's interrogation.

"Ah, Zuzu dear," she greeted in a neutral voice. Pulling rank for kicks could always be done later. "So glad you could come. I have new information on the Avatar's location, and as my official tracker, I would like your thoughts."

He turned, slowly. She noticed the blood on his face. Her prisoner must have made quite the splatter. "My _thoughts?_ My thoughts are that you just murdered a man, cruelly, shamelessly and without remorse."

The princess simply made a vexed sound: "Is that any way to talk to your boss and benefactor? Now, the Avatar's bison has been seen heading north-east, up into the marshes. But I cannot help but think he is leading us on a merry chase."

"There's a man, dead. And that's the extent of information you extracted in exchange for his life?" Zuzu must still not be really listening. He completely ignored the warning in her tone. Instead, he seemed to be reprimanding her. He strode up to her accusingly, drawing his face a little too close: "How many people would you need to kill to get direction to the next town, 'Zula? This is disgusting."

She let a small smirk tug at her lips and raised her head even closer. Did the fool think to intimidate her? "Come now, Zuzu. There are enough of them to go around. And what are you going to do about it anyway? Challenge me to a duel?"

For a moment, just a fleeting wonderful moment, she thought he would say yes. His teeth are bared, and the set to his shoulder suggested he was getting ready to dig in; to defend his values, as he used to. But the forward angle of his head fell sideways after a moment and his eyes trailed downward. "That won't bring the man back to life. But could you please not do something like that again?"

"Please?" She let out a half-breath, half-chuckle.

"_Please_." He drew it out, like a plea. Maybe her brother was not as clueless as he seems. Or at least not all the time, and he knew how much she liked that.

Music to her ears. Azula thought she could at least consider it.

"Anyway, I believe we are being led on a merry duck-goose chase. Mai, Ty Lee, tell the troops to turn around. We are going back to Serpent's Lake."

**~~A~~**

The Northern Air Temple was as beautiful as Aang remembered. It stood on the peak of a mountain, like a fairytale castle. The towers grope at the sky like giant hands, reaching straight into the clouds. The crisscross roads start at the many towers, but all come together and end into steep nothingness where Sokka blew up the roads to stop the advancing Fire Nation armies.

Nothing else reminded him of that war however; the landscape stood silent, and when Appa reached the forests around that peak, the gliders flew out and flocked around them in welcome.

Teo is there, amongst their welcome-party, and all the other children too. Giddy with their yelled excitement, Aang grabbed his own glider and joined them, ignoring Katara's worried frowns and admonishments: _'How can he be so irresponsible, when he is obviously still so gravely injured?'_

Aang grinned and bore it. She did not understand, even if he would tell her he had finally made a friend in the Fire Nation. Even if she'd believe Prince Zuko was on their side now. She may be kind, caring, loving. But to her, family is all. Aang may be family to her, but to Aang, it was _friendship_ that went above all else.

If he would tell her that he would gladly take a lightning bolt to the chest for _every_ new friend he made, she would _not_ understand.

But that's fine too. He is the Avatar; and for the first time since he found out that fact, Aang thought he knew what he needed to do.

The refugees threw them a party that night; an eat-fest garnished with witty inventions and performances. It was late at night, before he even talked to Teo; the boy was the first not full of 'how great it is that the Avatar is back for a visit'. He just wanted to know where his friend Sokka is.

Katara looked away, worried. Toph gave her most wicked, fake grin and claimed they 'dumped the loser'.

And Aang?

He looked for that telltale plume from the tank's smoke on the horizon. When he didn't see it, he felt the first tinges of apprehension, but shook it off. He has a job here: give hope and unite; to make more, closer friends. Sokka could take care of himself for a little while.

And soon, that tank would show up on the horizon, and then they would have to move on in a hurry, for they would not wish to endanger the refugees again.

**~~Z~~**

They retraced their steps the rest of the day. It bothered Zuko, though he told himself there is no need for him to control, or even understand. _Let it go; just let it go. _And stay close to Azula.

Close enough to step in, the next time she feels like committing bloody murder.

The sad thing, of course, was that even with his new insights into his sister's shortcomings, Zuko had no way to predict when that might be. His closes guess right now was:

_Any bloody time._

Of course, that couldn't be right. Because there were still a hundred soldiers here - one hundred men, that had all lived with and survived Azula a lot longer than it should have taken her to do away with them all.

Perhaps he took to his task as obsessively as the old one, but as Zuko felt he needed to stay as close as possible to his sister anyway. So he found himself studying her. Observing, making interpretations, trying to understand. The first oddity he noticed is that _that_ doesn't bother her. No- she seemed to almost crave the attention.

And not just his_—everyone's_.

When she came out of her tank to ride a komodo-rhino for a while, she _needed_ Mai and Ty Lee close by; she _needed_ them to at least keep half their attention on her at all times. She needed the soldiers; needed them to march beside her and cast her fearful glances, like piglet-lambs wondering if their day to slaughter has come.

She _needed_ it.

It struck Zuko as odd, because he had always thought a person as perfect and untouchable as his sister high above craving the attention of lesser beings. It seemed he was wrong.

When Zuko followed his sister's almost troubled gaze across the endless marshes, he decided to test his theory.

"It's a big place, isn't it? The Earth Kingdom can make a person feel small, inconsequential. One could get lost around here, and never be found. No wonder earth citizens never seem to move. One peek into the endlessness of their country might well drive a man to despair."

She tensed a moment, but then Azula eased her face into a more familiar smirk: "As it drives you, brother-dear?"

"It used to," he admitted, with no hesitation. "But then I got used to it, and noticed the good side."

Her voice was impatience come to life: "There is no good side to despair. It is an emotion called on by weakness."

"The Earth Kingdom is huge and unmoving, like a mountain. It does not even notice us; the people do. We can kill earth-citizens and they hate us for it. But the wilderness doesn't care. It does not put you on a pedestal nor does it denounce your deeds. The earth-lands do not even notice us. You cannot impress it, but neither can you fail it."

And he looked at her; truly _looked_. _Was that a shudder?_

"How pleasant for you," Azula snapped. "But I assure you, not even this disgusting land will be able to deny _me_ when I capture the Avatar."

_Ah; do you know, little sister? The worst I ever wanted to do was just impress father. _

_You have it bad._

But the banished teen did not let his grin break through. "What makes you so sure he is not with his bison? It is his spirit animal; he would not want to be separated from it for long."

"They are drawing me away, taunting me. It must be to distract me from the prize."

In that, Zuko had to agree; they might well be trying to draw them away from something. But it is Azula's self-centeredness that convinces her that thing has to be the Avatar himself. _'Aang would be willing to draw your fire just to protect a particularly pretty field of flowers,'_ he reminisced.

Still, Zuko was convinced his theory was right.

A very long time ago, before both their parents had decided it was better if both siblings were kept far away from each other, Zuko had known a different side to Azula; the side that followed him around and demanded in her still-limited vocabulary that he play with her.

Oh, she'd screamed and pushed and bit him when he did not comply, and always demanded she could pick what they'd be playing. (And Zuko would have almost given anything to just have a sister that wanted to play dolly or house like a normal girl.) Also, after his fourth birthday, when proper tutorage started, it had annoyed Zuko to no end to have what little free time he had left spent hiding from a near-rabid little sister.

Still, it had been _his attention_ she had craved.

And had _he_ not burned down the choice wall-tapestry in a fit of rage, when his father had again professed no interest in him?

Ah, how could he have ever been scared of his wicked little sister? How could he not have recognized his own reflection, grotesque and deformed as it was.

_They were the same._

And with that thought, the Avatar's words came back to Zuko: "Perhaps you could talk to you sister… and we could all be friends?"

Well, Aang _did_ just talk way too much. And even if he was the Avatar, that hardly made him a messiah.

Or maybe it did. But he was still just a twelve-year-old kid.

So Zuko didn't _really_ think he should take Aang's words as world-truths.

Not quite.

Still, the idea had… merit.

It was also stupid, suicidal and completely impossible. Not that Zuko had ever allowed common sense to get in the way of his ambitions before…

**a/n:**

**hehe. Anyone getting excited over this fic? I am. Lots a fun, in the next chapter already. Sneak preview:**

"Well? Is it him?"

A girl's giddy voice inquired from the side. Sokka tried to look, but found turning his head only made the rest of his body turn the other side, so the action didn't gain him enough angle.

"It's hard to say, isn't it?" A contemplative, yet strangely familiar voice rasped. Then, a scarred face to accompany the voice swam into view, upside-down of course; as the owner crouched down to examine him. "He is definitely water-tribe, but whether he is one of the Avatar's companions…" a shrug. "They all look the same to me, these water-warriors."


	11. Chapter 11

**Special thanks yet again to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing.**

**a/n: I am really happy with this one. I hope you all are too!**

**Also, I realized that, if someone asked a question, it might be good to answer it in the next chapter, as other people might have the same questions. So starting here:**

**Vienx asked: is there going to be Sokka x Azula romance:**

**!SPOILER**

**Answer: yes. Well.. ah. That depends on your definition of romance. There will not be any flowers, or boxes of chocolates… if you catch my drift. Teehee!**

**!END SPOILER**

**In other news, rudefool came up with the wonderful term calm!Zuko.**

**I love that one. Calm!Zuko. gotto use it somewhere…**

**And now, the actual story!**

**~~S~~**

"Well? Is it him?"

A girl's giddy voice inquired from the side. Sokka tried to look, but found turning his head only made the rest of his body turn the other side, so the action didn't gain him enough of an angle. Not that the water-tribe warrior was entirely sure he could recognize anyone upside-down, swaying from a rope-noose on his foot.

No, Sokka had not triggered a hunter's big-game snare, thank you very much.

Well, he had, but only because some pink-haired acrobat had pushed him into it.

And when Sokka said pushed, he mean scared him into stepping back. A perfectly understandable reaction to the situation he had found himself in. A situation in which he was tracking trough a dense and completely forsaken forest in supposed isolation, when suddenly out of nowhere a pink-bunned girl had stood next to him, and screamed at him in a loud and scarily happy voice:

"_Hi!"_

Was it any wonder Sokka had backed up screaming, pulling out his space-sword as he went? And then, it really was not his fault his backward motion had caught his foot in that snare, now was it? It was just really, really bad luck. And when he had been pulled upside-down by the rope on his foot suddenly pulling taunt, one could hardly blame him for dropping his space-sword from the shock either, could one?

No, Sokka rather felt that none of this was his fault. But he sure was in deep trouble.

Dark red boots on soft ground squished into view, and Sokka heard a grunt somewhere above him.

"It's hard to say, isn't it?" A contemplative, yet strangely familiar voice rasped. Sokka caught an eyeful of red clothing, half obscured by a bright white arm-sling as he swung by. Then, a scarred face to accompany the voice swam into view, upside-down of course; as the owner crouched down to examine him. "He is definitely water-tribe, but whether he is one of the Avatar's companions…" A shrug. "They all look the same to me, these water-warriors."

Said water-warrior blinked repeatedly, trying to steady himself by thrusting his hands side-ways. "You…! Zuko!"

Well, considering the situation, Sokka just didn't feel like his eloquent self, he supposed.

Behind him, the pink-haired acrobat came into focus. "He knows you though, Zuko-dear. Doesn't that prove it?"

"Hey, _everybody_ knows me. I'm a Fire Nation prince—well, former Fire Nation prince." The scarred boy waved his hand at his companion nonchalantly. "I also snuck into the North Pole fortress and single-handedly stole the Avatar out of everyone's noses. I bet I'm pretty famous around there for that at least."

"Hunnnnn?" said the girl, scrounging up her nose in thought. "Then why haven't you taken the Avatar to the Fire-Lord?"

Just as Sokka stated, disgusted: "You know damn well I'm _Southern _Water-tribe, jerk bender! And you'd think your head would at _least_ remember the dent from my Boomerang."

The prince paid him absolutely no mind.

"Blizzards; Admiral Zhao's ego; Water-Bending witches laying in ambush. Take your pick." Zuko summed up to Ty Lee, in an obvious attempt to drown out Sokka's fact-rave.

The acrobat was thumping Zuko on the shoulder excitedly now though, earning a wince probably due to whatever injury caused the prince to keep his arm in that sling: "See? I knew it was him! He's kind of cute, huh? Oh, Azula will be _so pleased_."

Zuko grunted. "What would Azula care for a nobody like him? She sent us to find the Avatar, not collect displaced citizens. Why don't we cut your cute little peasant-boy free and let him on his way?"

Sokka lost track of the acrobat a moment, but found her again by following the noise of ditzy laughter with his eyes. She was doing cart-wheels around them. "Keep secrets from Azula? _Are you insane?_ She will find out- and then we'd be sorry!"

Zuko appeared to be glaring at him now, Sokka realized.

Well, the prince _always _glared, Sokka thought. Then again, he had acted amiable enough when talking to the acrobat. Maybe his true colors were just shining through now.

He was also fingering the ornate dagger at his waist with his good hand. Sokka dared him, with his own silent scowl, and was thus completely thrown off when the prince hissed at him:

"Are you a fast runner, water-tribe?"

Sokka just stared, while the object of his confusion continued to finger his dagger and steal furtive glances up the rope that dangled the water-warrior. Was Zuko actually suggesting what Sokka _thought_ he was suggesting? Because if he was, then Sokka didn't know how to describe the prince's behavior anymore. Schizophrenic came closest.

But then three more pair of boots announced themselves.

"Pri-Zuko? We'll take over here, if you please," a slightly worried male voice interjected.

And the moment was gone: Zuko rolled his eyes, straightened, and left the water-warrior at the mercy of the soldiers. Who promptly bound him hand and foot, and slung him over the largest of the three men's shoulder. Before he knew it, Sokka was heading straight for that spirit-cursed crazy bitch princess.

**~~T~~**

Ty Lee thought of butterflies. Of how pretty the forest was, with the sun's light raining down through the leafy canopy. And of how happy Azula would be with them when they returned with the water-tribesman in their custody. She marched amongst the trees on her hands, legs dangling above her and tried to make that all she was thinking off.

It wasn't working.

With a sigh, Ty Lee realized she had no choice but to address the situation head-on.

"Zuko, your aura is all panicky with purple barbs and whirling yellows since we found cute-in-blue here." She addressed the boy that was actually dragging his heels so much he was slowing the whole group down. And he was walking the _boring _way up. "Want to tell me what the problem is?"

A call came from behind, from said water-warrior slug across a soldier's shoulder. "I think that's _my _aura."

Ty Lee giggled, but she knew she wasn't wrong. Indeed, the ex-prince sighed, and slowed down so far that the three soldiers behind started making moves that suggested they wanted to pass him. After perhaps a moment of such hesitation, he finally answered her.

"I don't really like killing people. Do you, Ty Lee?"

The acrobat-stolen-from-the-circus nearly tripped. "What kind of a question is that?" She overruled loudly, ignoring their prisoner's yelp. A nasty little voice Ty Lee liked to ignore supplied she knew exactly what he meant though: "Azula is _not _going to kill the boy!"

The yelps from the soldier's shoulder changed to panicky girly screams, but they was easy to ignore; easier than her friend's cold logic.

"Really? I'd think my sister would want to interrogate him on the Avatar's location. And seeing as how the last man she interrogated wound up…"

"She wouldn't."

Angrily, Ty Lee let her legs fall forward, further over her rump until she stood. Then, she grabbed a low-hanging branch and swung herself around, once, twice, thrice; and then she spread her legs, coming to a stop at the top in a perfect handstand-split. The act made her giddy enough to laugh again. "Of course she wouldn't silly. He is too cute to kill."

"Yeah! I am way too cute to kill!" The three soldiers, including the one that held this over-talkative- if ever so cute – boy, stopped, unsure of what to do.

Zuko just crossed his arms and scowled at her.

"Stop worrying and watch my new trick." Ty Lee suggested, falling into a dizzying sequence of spins and turns. After another arm-change, she spun, jumped at release, did a triple summersault and landed perfectly. The artist giggled, and turned to bow at her audience: three confused soldiers, a still-scowling denounced prince and the newly-calmed water-tribesman's ass."Turn 'round so I see…?"

Instead of appreciation, she was again confronted with nasty facts: "'Zula is expecting us to find the Avatar. Coming back with one of his random friends will only serve to make her angry. When I am angry, I break stuff. But Azula breaks _people_."

With a flick of the wrist, Ty Lee dismissed his logic. "Come now, our princess might be a little… testy at times, but she hardly ever breaks her own properties." She grinned, as wickedly as he could. "That is why me and Mai are safe. That is why _you_ are still alive."

The fire bender tensed, but then rolled his shoulders. There was hardly an aura-change, so Ty Lee knows her subject-change had been averted. "And yet I have seen my sister destroy quite a few gifts to her straight out of hand. I do not see where your confidence comes from..."

_Other than just wishful thinking…_

Ty Lee nearly grimaced at the unspoken addition. "That's just gifts she finds lacking," she replied confidently. "But she's bound to like our boy-in-blue. Just listen to how funny his- just look at how cute he is!" And for emphasis, she walked around and grabbed the boy's upside-down cheeks, and pinched them.

The boy groaned, turning to hide his dark but distinctly reddening face within the crook of his arms and the soldier's back. And lamented the fact that he doubt he'll be cute for long if Ty Lee kept manhandling him like that.

Oh, he was _just to die for_. Wasn't he?

Ty Lee frowned. "We just need to make sure Azula feels he is special and valuable."

"I AM special and valuable!" The boy managed to lift himself up far enough to glower at Zuko. "And you'd have to be an idiot not to see it."

"Right." The ex-prince still sounded less then convinced. "Well if even the water-tribe can think of a reason why my sister would want him alive, forget I said anything then."

"See?" This time her giggle was truly relieved - because Ty Lee believed it – made herself believe it. "You need to relax more, Zuzu. Do like I do; put that frown upside-down."

And she folded herself backward, catching and balancing herself on her hands. She smiled, ignoring the fire bender and water warrior exchange of looks in favor of 'walking' on.

"All right," The raspy voice sighed, surprising her. "Apparently I need a hobby anyway. And I bet it beats playing the Tsungi horn."

Startled, Ty Lee turned and watched in shocked silence as the banished prince removed and dumped the sling. After a few careful, experimental rolls of the shoulder, he bent forward and raised first one, then the other foot off the ground.

Zuko really wasn't that bad, for a first-timer. He did however tip over a lot and somehow always managed to land in something nasty. Like a puddle, or a thorn-bush. But he didn't even seem to mind, and by the time they made it back to camp–taking ever too long- even the three soldiers and their captive were laughing.

**~~A~~**

On the morning of the fourth day, there was still no plume of smoke on the horizon. And when Aang meditated and connected to all life around him, he could not feel a Fire Nation soldier for miles…

Aang had never been as worried by their absence as right now.

The rest of the day was spent on Appa. Aang took his glider and a few of the sky-gliding children and they sortied from Appa's moving back, patrolling the surrounding lands looking for any sigh of Azula's army. They came up empty-handed, and by evening they returned home, dejected.

Aang thought there was only one suitable way to find answers now.

He would visit the spirit world.

And so Aang found himself once again in the inner sanctuary of the temple. The place is stacked with even more weapons then last time he visited. But, at least, this time these arms were meant for his side of the war, Aang argued. Not that it made him feel any better.

Still, Aang found the center of the room, climbing machines whose purposes he didn't wish to know. He found himself one of the last patches of open floor, and looked around with a sigh. He saw little more than the towering machines around him and a piece of ceiling overhead. Not really the peaceful surroundings to make his meditation easier.

Katara, balanced on all fours atop one of the machines closest, frowned down at him. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Aang?"

Aang shrugged. "It should be faster and saver then scouring the countryside for Azula and her army."

"But what if you don't wake up? What if something happens here and we need to wake you?"

The air bender's brow wrinkled. It was a valid argument. "Well, a trip to the Spirit World never took more than a day. We have three days until we have to meet Sokka. It should be fine.

"Besides," Aang grabbed for that fine girl-hand, feeling clever and bold all at once. "You'll be here to protect me, right?"

Katara made that face that was supposed to be a strict, worried mother's glare. But he could see the pleased expression right underneath. So, with one last reassuring smile up at her, he plopped to the ground, and put his fists together, eyes closed.

The transition is quick; traveling through a thin no-man's land into a discolored world that Aang instantly recognized as the Spirit World.

And yet, even as he made his way through the thick brown-red mists, it suddenly felt so obtrusively crowded. Whispers passed him by, as close as an inch from his face or as far as a world away. The Avatar knew such was the way of this place, and yet, it all felt so different from his past visits. Aang soon spotted a silhouette within the smoke; he was more relieved than seemed justified.

"Avatar Roku?" Aang found himself asking, finding familiarity in the size and shape of the man's form. "Is that you…?"

The shape turned towards Aang, familiar, and yet strange, and began to speak: "Avatar Aang, the comet is coming."

Aang held his breath; watching the strange distortions in the air glimmer and pass right through that grand silhouette. Then, he stepped closer hesitantly.

"I know; we went through that..."

Another inch and what should be Avatar Roku spoke again.

"You must act now..."

It was Avatar Roku's voice; Aang was sure of that. And yet, it seems too slow. Too low. And it distorted even more, when the shape, only two steps away now, spoke up again:

"You must restore balance…"

"Balance

Balance

Balance!"

Suddenly, Avatar Roku was no more, gone within a school of black-blue fish swimming all around Aang. Touching him, slithering past. Aang looked down, saw their soft underbellies as they passed his hands; swam under his feet. Everything was black amongst them; they pushed at Aang, near-smothering him. Fish as big as his hand, or as big as his whole body. Fish as small as his finger or even smaller still.

"We _are _balance."

Only when they cleared, disappearing into the dark faster than should have been possible, did Aang notice another weird thing. Aang saw a mirror-perfect plain beneath him, as he floated down towards it. Yet as he put this reflective surface in perspective of the fact that he had seen the fish's bellies beneath himself, a bubble of air escaped him in panic.

Predictably, the bubbles fell towards the mirror-perfect; towards the water's surface; Aang was upside down.

"We _eat _balance."

As Aang's feet broke this lake's mirror-edge, he was submerged into vertigo once again, and the whole world seemed to flip, up becoming down, down up. And the boy found himself standing on the water, looking out into a too-bright sky. One filled with an intense heat from the sun, drumming with excitement. Again, fish seem to assault him from all sides; though, as he knows he is breathing air now, these could only be birds.

"IT IS TIME FOR OUR FEAST!"

And yet, this time, Aang did not see anything. He felt slithering bodies push past him, nudging him almost playfully, but though the sky was painfully bright and the air far too clear, he saw nothing. Aang squinted into the light; shying away from prods and playful nips that he knew were not of evil intent. But he was confused now, perhaps even a little scared. When Aang turns to squint at the sun, he thinks he sees a long, serpentine shape pass it.

_Could it be…? _

"Fang…? Is that you?"

Too many voices answered: two, close together: a crimson one excited, young and hungry. Its dark sister gentle, but no less playful and full of mischief:

"Can you fly, little Avatar?"

Then, a whole different voice. Ancient, commanding and beyond anything living:

_**"We will not wait another hundred years."**_

Another twin pair, old and proud, but deferring to that loud, all-encompassing voice like it was their deity:

_"You tell them, Avatar."_

The younger pair, however, paid neither god nor what Aang suspected were its parents any mind. He realized it was them, play-nipping at him within the invisible snouts. He could hear another thousand voices in there, too, if he listened. But they were younger, weaker, and agreed to let the brother and sister lead without qualm.

"Can you swim, in the dancing waves where our brothers live?" sang the female, which Aang associated with black velvet.

Then the red, brilliant one, interjected: "Would you play, high in the sky where our brood should be?"

Then a hot wind blew, casting the invisible frolicking flock away from him, and the spirit's voice itself reprimanded sternly:

**"Silence, litter. Have respect while your elders speak, for this is a grave matter."**

The hot wind changed direction, and suddenly, Aang knew it was breathing he felt tug at his clothes. A hot breath, coming from…** "Tell me, Avatar, d**_**o those in the living world truly think they can hold fire without us?"**_

The Avatar swallowed, turning slowly toward that voice that suddenly had a direction. From behind him; and way too close for comfort. One step-turn, another…

And the last air bender looked up into a muzzle that was larger than he could have ever contemplated. Twin rows of teeth, even the smaller incisors easily the size of a grown man. The creature's grey-white chin rested on the ground in front of Aang, and its twin nostrils blew lazy puffs of smoke somewhere up where a second story chimney would have been located.

Aang had seen dragons in his old life, before the iceberg, a hundred years ago. But none had been half as big as this one. With a certainty, Aang knew this was an ancient dragon spirit.

The Great Spirit blinked, golden eyes as big as Appa looking down on him.

"**Sozin's brood owes us. Do they think they can forget about us?"**

Now, Aang was well aware that he was the spirit incarnate of the world, and thus must somehow overtrump this majestic ancient beast. Still, his nerves failed him.

"I…" the young air bender stammered.

Rescue came from an unexpected source; the two little invisible dragons were back, their faceless flock slowly returning to circle Aang.

"Never mind the old sour-puss. His breath maybe hot but it hardly burns." The male supplied, wringing around Aang's shoulders and neck happily.

The female meanwhile tried to find nesting within his shirt, and chirped in reply: "Yes! Come play with us instead! Can you spit fire?"

The flock around Aang strengthened, and though it poked and bit, it made the young air bender feel safe: strong and protected. The ancient spirit seemed not to have noticed yet. It appeared to be monologue-ing.

**"Let them try - their brains will melt. Let them…." **

Aang let out a soft chuckle. But bliss quickly left him, when those giant reptilian eyes narrowed in suspicion. Indeed, the ancient spirit raised its voice to a level that would have deafened the young Avatar, had he been in his true body:__

**"Ran, Shaw,**_** if you cannot control your brood, kindly remove them from my presence!"**_

The twin elders moved in, and this time, Aang did see them: two serpentine shapes, waving through the air, heading straight for him.

'_Apologies, elder.' _offered the great red, while the blue addressed Aang. 'Avatar_, please understand, we only ask our due.'_

The two dragons, identified as Ran and Shaw turned away from Aang at the last possible moment, and then started to circle him and the invisible flock. Long red and blue bodies intertwined as they turned and turned again, spinning around the boy, until the two intertwined knots was all he could see. Now and then, fangs snapped, and a dragon-young's spirit was removed from the flock, abducted by a parent and tucked away in those great jaws for safe keeping.

The young grumbled, or taunted that their parents would not get 'this one,' because 'this one' was too fast and clever. Shades that the air bender thought he could almost make out frolicked in a tight ball around him, some evading their parent's jaws once or twice, but every snap of the jaws more were captured. It was all just a game to the little ones, Aang realized. And their giddy, happy nature was contagious.

The two elder young defended Aang with gusto, the male's voice strong: "The ancient one is too dour, and smelly besides. The Avatar can save us, can you not, Aang?"

"Yes, yes!" chimed the dark, smooth female. "Can you turn the ground around us back to life, warm like a nest should be? Could you…"

–"_**No! The Avatar will NOT fix **__**th**__**is!"**_

And this time, the ancient spirit used a true commanding voice. The flock, though courageous, suddenly lost its zeal, and spurred into its two guardian's jaws without further prompting. Only the eldest two; the black and crimson shades stayed with Aang, though they hid partially behind him. They were tiny, compared to the grand white-grey, roughly the size of a grown eel. The old spirit sighed.

"**Tell the people of fire, we believe in second chances. We will renew our bonds, and forgive."** Another slow blink of Appa-sized golden eyes. **"Or, they can forget us, and we will laugh at their pain, as they slowly consume each other, and themselves."**

"Yes! Forgive and make friends and play!" Little muzzles Aang could just make out dug at his chest, nipped at his ears, as if the old dragon's words had settled everything - cleared everything up.

"Yes, yes;" they chimed, like a pair of Lemurs on a grape-sugar high:

"Show us cubs…

"to the cubs…

"to the cubs…

"to the cubs…"

And it all faded, turned from bright to brown to black; and then back to the normal world.

"Wait!" Aang called; too, too late. "I was supposed to look for Sokka!"

But they were gone; all of them. And Aang was alone. Dejected, the young Avatar tried pushed himself back into his true body, and muttered:

"Remind me again why I thought this would help."


	12. Chapter 12

**I had some serious trouble writing this, but my beta assures me it turned out okay, so –**

**Special then again to Gift Of Dragons for beta-work!**

**Ancient rhyme: **

"_Two time two, there comes a reign;_

_Golden eyes, the trickster's feast. _

_Half are men and half are beast,_

_A__nd all of them insane."_

**~~S~~**

"My notes!"

Azula gave him a sidelong glance before letting the smoking ruin of Sokka's papers fall to the ground. They lay there smoldering in a small breeze until the princess brought one of her point-tipped boots own, obliterating the remains with a little too much vigor. The way the princess held his eyes while indulging herself also suggested she was imagining doing such to parts of Sokka's anatomy soon.

Yes; things turned rotten fast whenever this girl prodigy was involved. Mad as a badger-wolf, Sokka decided.

What was worse was he seemed to be on his own against her. Well, the fact that he had been taken by the enemy should have had Sokka expected that. However, the walk to camp - or rather, piggyback ride across a soldier's shoulder - had been so entertaining the water tribesman had come to expect some sort of protection from the mad princess.

But no, he was on his own. Zuko seemed at least sorry for the destruction of property, though not sorry enough to step in. No; he seemed to think it only natural his sister would take the lead from here. Without complaints or temper-flares even. The implications of that were already churning in the back of Sokka's mind, running him to worrisome conclusions.

As for the acrobat-girl? She seemed to be preoccupied watching spider-flies crawl up tree bark. Ty Lee had presented her catch to the princess right outside her tank, in the privacy provided by the fact that any and all that did not have specific business with their liege-lady seemed committed to keep a safe distance. Now, she stood happily off to the side, pretending not to even see what was going on.

Not that Sokka quite understood what it was that was going on. But he felt decidedly like a piece of meat thrown at a platypus bear.

With a toss of a side-sweep over her shoulder, the crazy fire-witch addressed one of the three soldiers that had brought him with them.

"What else did he have with him?"

The third of the three - the only one that was not occupied by holding Sokka by a shoulder – stepped forward and upturned Sokka's satchel, spilling food, possession and unasserted unto muddy ground.

"My MEAT!"

Had the water-warrior not been held up physically by two rather oversized thugs for soldiers, he would have theatrically thrown himself to the ground. With a wail, he wrung his rope-tied hands before him instead.

_What?_ Sokka supposed there was something to be said about taking it all in dignity, right now, however, he had already decided to just throw the biggest performance he could. There was, after all, _also _something to be said for being a royal pain in the Fire Nation's royal butt. _–oh; pun! __B__urn that, Toph!_

Sokka did not grin at his own cleverness though; no. He put forth a face of wronged innocence, and admonished:

"Is _nothing _sacred to you people?"

Azula seemed indifferent as he launched into a heart-felt monologue on the sanctity of food, and the crime of ruining another man's meal.

No; half-way through, she interrupted, fixing him with narrowed eyes.

"Where is the Avatar?"

"Who cares about the Avatar…" Sokka let his breath hitch- if he was going to be a prisoner, he was going to be the most annoying prisoner of all time.

"-if you cannot even care about _food?_"

And annoying her he was: one fine-trimmed eyebrow twitched. Her voice cutting through his lament like a sword thought butter: easily, and with excessive use of force.

"Tell me Zuzu; how many fingers does a water-tribesman really need?"

Sokka's rant fell to a stuttering stop, brain taking over from his mouth as he remembered.

Right, the princess… psychotic, prone to violence. Probably willing to torture him; possibly quite capable of murder...

Perhaps annoying his captors should not be on top of Sokka's priorities list after all. With growing premonition, the idea-man watched the prince grope for words. A prince that, quite literally, didn't seem to have _any idea._

"Uh."

The jerk bender locked gazes with Sokka, as if he wants to exchange notes or something.

What the hell did he want from Sokka anyway? Damn sneak. Playing both sides like this—turning him in, but still trying to stay on even Sokka's good side as it was...

Ah yes.

That's what he wanted.

Of course; he had asked Sokka to think of a reason why Azula would want him alive? Sokka had it: and he would divulge it in simple pantomime. When Azula turned to regard her brother, annoyed at the prince's lethargy, Sokka held up one finger, then pointed it at his face.

_Unique._

Zuko looked relieved.

"One?"

Sokka would have face-palmed himself, if it were not for Azula's scary mad giggles.

"Good, then let's get rid of the other nine little pinkies."

But the idiot-prince seemed to get it now, if a little late:

"Are you sure about that, 'Zula? What if you cut off the reason that he is so_special_."

At Sokka's pleased expression, he continued, surer.

"You see, the Avatar travels with the strongest earth-bender in the world, the last Southern water-bender -also a prodigy, his sky-bison - again the last of its kind, the last flying lemur... and this guy."

The princess regarded her brother, a pensive frown on her face:

"And what is this boy the last of then?"

"I am not really sure."

To that, Sokka nodded encouragingly. Then he quickly faked a look of bored disinterest when those cat-like golden eyes shot from her brother to him with a quick turn of the head.

"But apparently he is important enough for the Avatar himself to try and lure us away." Zuko continued - building a decent enough case, in Sokka's modest opinion.

Azula made a sound in her throat.

"Hm… that might not even be entirely stupid, Zuzu. Now."

She stalked closer, fixing Sokka with those eyes. Eyes that shifted a little too fast, and shone a little too brightly; Sokka had the odd inclination to ask her if maybe she was feeling hungry.

"Tell me; when and where you are supposed to meet back up with the Avatar."

Sokka's didn't have to fake his sputter.

"Aren't you supposed to find out what makes me so special first."

A grin, evil and wicked played on the princess's delicate face.

"Oh, we have the rest of your life to get to that. The Avatar is more important right now."

Just not to stand there with nothing to say, Sokka agreed with her.

"You are right. He is more important."

And left it at that.

Now, it might have been Sokka's imagination, but the atmosphere seemed to change in the stretching silence after that fact. Sokka definitely did not imagine the way those soldiers at his shoulder's seemed to try to distance themselves from him without releasing their hold. Nor did the water-tribesman miss the look between the little acrobat and the prince: an unspoken question the girl answered with an unbothered shrug.

He'd passed an unmarked line, Sokka belatedly realized. He had said no to the princess.

There was probably a reason that didn't happen much.

Said princess crossed the remaining ground between them, her features showing badly hidden rage. One hand fisted into the front of his tunic, dragging the young warrior down and forward as she sneered at him.

"You choose a very bad time to grow a spine, boy."

A tug, and something below, off to where the girl fire bender's other hand should be, was making a strange crackling sound.

"I tend to break spines."

There was a light down there, over at her hidden hand: a blue light. Sokka swallowed dryly.

"I'm pretty sure my spine is an essential part of my specialness?"

"Obviously. And I doubt my sweet sister needs any blood sputtered all over her pretty armor."

From far away, Sokka thought he should object to Zuko professing an understanding of sarcasm, when that was obviously water-tribe turf. But at a different, more immediate level, he was too relieved with a distraction to care. Azula's eyes did that quick dance again, then narrowed back in on poor hapless little Sokka. The fire that had almost died flared back up.

"Zuzu, dear? Please do not interrupt. I am questioning a prisoner right now."

Though Sokka could not see past the mad prodigy's too-close face, he knew Zuko was only a step behind her. Just one step. Jaw clamming shut, Sokka latched on to that hope.

_You said she wouldn't kill me! Wouldn't kill me… wouldn't kill me if she thought I was special._

No, actually, Zuko had only said he hoped she wouldn't kill him. And she was crazy. More crazy then Sokka had realized. But that didn't mean he'd betray his friends. Never. Fire Nation might like to go on about honor, but Sokka knew its true meaning. He'd rather die.

"Perhaps I could do this instead? It doesn't seem right a princess should have to bother with such grotesque matters."

Zuko seemed to be working on making his voice less threatening and more smooth. It was still gritty though; even if he spoke softly. Sokka could only prey mad princesses weren't too picky about that.

For a moment, just a moment, Sokka thought it would work. Then, those eyes latched back on to him, her sneering face moving back to make way for a blue-burning fist.

"Sorry Zuzu, not giving you my fun. Now, where are you meeting with the Avatar?"

It was hot; Sokka knew he was sweating already. And what did he smell burning? Was that his eyebrows? He struggled; but the two soldiers didn't seem to mind holding him still for actual torture. With the men on his shoulder's he couldn't even bring his hands up to shield himself. Yet Sokka would not tell. He would not; the heat was hurting his eyes, so he closed them.

Even if she blinded him, he would not tell.

He would not.

"At the lake's edge."

A small whimper escaped the water-tribe boy as the fire disappeared and was replaced by merciful, cold air. But… how could he have?

No; no—Sokka had not spoken. His jaws were still locked together in stubborn loyalty. But…

Eyes shooting open, Sokka chocked.

"How…?"

Azula's expression told him she had understood that her brother had spoken truth. It_also_ told Sokka this over-violent girl wasn't exactly happy about finding out like this. She turned to glare at her brother.

He shrugged.

"It's the only visible landmark in this damned forest. Where else could they meet?"

There was a soft grinding noise, in the silence that stretched. Finally, Azula turned back to her prisoner with a small nod. A nod that said 'you win this round, but I am far from finished'. Sokka thought she wore a real smile when her attention focused back on him: a terrible, gleeful, hungry smile.

"When are you meeting him?"

"Two or three days at most."

This time, Azula turned towards her brother so fast he actually jumped into a defensive stance.

"What? They wouldn't leave their friend for more than a week, now would they?"

Sokka didn't know to feel relieved or betrayed. Then again, Sokka guessed it was pretty easy to figure out if even Prince_ Jerk-face _could do it. Still, this meant Aang would be heading into a trap, when they came looking for him.

On the other hand, he at least didn't have to get burnt.

At least...

"Fine."

Azula let out a slow cackle, then continued until she was giggling like a school-girl. Which she might as well have been, if not for the blue-white flame in her hand.

"Good. Then I guess I just scorch him a bit for fun instead."

It was confirmed: she was crazy.

"Where would you want it? On your face?"

Nails like daggers cut into his tunic, dragging down the front and tearing right through all the way down.

"On your chest?" More of those mad cackles, while he could only worry about the way skin turned dry and started to crack as she passed. It hurt, and she wasn't even burning him yet.

"After all, we can't have you encounter _a real princess_ and have nothing to show for it, can we?"

"The last princess I met," Sokka knew his voice was at least an octave too high, but his wit was his only weapon now, "-simply kissed me. I think that's actually good enough a mark for me."

More laughter. Sokka knew Zuko was calling Azula's name from behind, but the girl's presence was drowning him. That and her laughter. And her crazy.

Her voice took on a sultry slur as she whispered in his ear.

"But, water-tribe! That can never be enough for _me._"

"AZULA!"

"Don't TOUCH me!"

Whether it was Zuko's yank on his sister's shoulder, or the girl's own springing attack, all Sokka knew was that he had a flaming fist inches from his chest one moment, then that whole arm and attached princess were gone. She was striding across the clearing with an air of dignity and calm now—both of which, Sokka knew for a fact, were completely fake.

Her brother likely could acclaim to that fact; he was doubled over his still-smoking abdomen. The fire-bender seemed torn between scooping more dirt on it as a coolant, or just twitch in pain. It seemed that, in the ricochet, the princess had turned and hit her brother instead.

"Somebody chain my new pet behind my tank." The princess spit out, through her façade.

"He can act as bait for the Avatar."

_Ah, how original._ Sokka quipped mentally, not quite ready to voice the thought out loud.

_Brilliance must run in your family._

"See?" Ty Lee sang at the prince, "Told you she wouldn't kill him."

Then she turned and skipped, jumped and flipped away.


	13. Chapter 13

**Warning: Azula is not right in the head.**

**Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for beta-ing**

The next six hours were without a doubt the worst in Sokka's life.

The path Azula chose to return was the same she had come by. When Sokka took a peek over the tank, it looked like a gaping hole within the jungle. A path was visible; a road perhaps. Likely by far the easiest route travel.

Looking down, however, all he found was mud, tree roots and puddles. Perhaps the Dai Lee had moved trees and such out of the way before, but this time they just trudged along somewhere in the back, apparently too tired to bother. At any rate, whatever road had been created before had become a trench filled with rainwater now. And, even though the tank driver seemed to know better than to make the army follow the steel beast through the middle of that trench, even the sides of the path were hard to navigate.

Sokka had about his own length in chain running from the tank to the shackles they had put on him. The infernal fetters gave him enough trouble while walking, as it was impossible to swing his arms from side to side. But things got a lot worse when he dawdled and got pulled along; then the joint at the middle would yank and force his hands together and he'd have to stumble and run to make up.

As such, avoiding tree roots and holes in time took a lot of concentration. And then, it was only the kind of avoid by stepping over or around sharp or dangerously uneven bits to avoid serious injury. Not the clean get-away kind of avoid. No; not at all. You'd think that, after a tank and a centurion of soldiers had trudged through a forest, there'd be nothing in the way of twigs and vines left to pop up back into Sokka's face, or to snag on his legs and endeavor to pull him down. And yet here they were, snagging and swiping and ganging up on him with the mud-pools to land him flat on his face.

As that would only result in him being pulled after the steel monster, it was a fate Sokka wanted to avoid at all costs.

It was, however, an understatement to say he was in a foul mood.

That mood only worsened when the princess, around noon, decided to take up a perch on top of her tank. She stood atop of her metal beast unmoving for at least an hour, red cape and dark hair flapping lazily in the breeze, eyes locked on their destination and showing Sokka and her army nothing but her uncaring back.

And yet, Sokka was well aware she was out here to be seen.

Now, Sokka himself had his fair share of experience with attention-hugging, overbearing girls, especially the little sister type. And he was well aware that the best way to deal with them was completely ignore them. But as this was not an option, Sokka decided a different approach.

When a soldier-attendant ran up along with the tank, climbed it, and started placing out a lunch for princess on a blanket, the water-tribesman decided it was time to speak.

Breakfast, though he had indulged well enough, suddenly seemed a long time ago.

"Oi!" Sokka called out, slightly tripping over a particularly nasty root. "Are you the only one that gets to eat lunch around here?"

Azula still didn't look his way; gave no indication that she'd even heard him. Yet when she kneeled down at the blanked she seated herself in a clear profile, all to present a better image as she nibbled on a morsel. There was also that small smirk tugging on her lips.

She was playing a game with him. Strip him of humanity and leave him as a lowly beast. But Sokka could change the rules, easy. He did not have any of that damned Fire Nation pride. Sokka was a practical man, and a lot cleverer than he usually got credit for.

"You know if you want to keep a pet. Your parents really should have told you, it is your job to take care of them."

She paused in chewing, and Sokka knew for a fact nobody ever told her anything like that.

Good. Now he could dictate the rules.

"Feed them." He noted casually, and then gestured at himself; even if he had not fallen on his face yet, he knew he was one with the mud he struggled through.

"Keep them clean."

"And-"another one of those damned branches swept up. "-ouch- whole."

He had managed to draw her attention; though that penetrating stare promised little good. Sokka did not let it intimidate him though. He just shrugged instead.

She laughed. Actually laughed at him.

"Catch."

And she threw a dumpling-sized morsel. Sokka reached out, grabbed, and had the chain pull his hand away, as the tank continued on, uncaring. His fingers snagged on the food, then it went down within the mud.

"No!" he wailed.

"What a waste."

Azula just giggled, and then upturned her platter. Food slit down the tilted metal sides of her metal steed, and the princess watched him with a fascinated expression, head slightly inclined.

Sokka hesitated only half a step before running full tilt and grabbing for the falling morsels. He caught only two, and watched the others with pain in his heart, fall into the sludge and out of his few. To be trampled by a hundred men. His meager catch was swallowed whole.

"Princess," he told her, in a parental tone he doubted she could appreciate, "if you had any understanding of what holds value in this world, you'd know what you did just now was a crime."

She just laughed. "Oh, the look on your face!

"Adorable."

.

Then, by late afternoon it started drizzling, and the princess decided to haul herself up inside the tank instead. The mud got worse, and with it the going, until Sokka was just stumbling along from puddle to tree root to muddy trench. Finally, halt was called and the men and–surprisingly- woman all set out about chores of putting up camp. Soggy camp-fires started up, half-shielded from the rain. Animals were pegged out and tents were put up. The biggest canvas a few steps away from the tank, and soon the princess and her entourage were accompanied inside it by a small troupe of soldiers holding them umbrellas from the now increased down-poor.

The Dai Li had even bended a dry walk-way for the women, and Sokka thought it was incredibly unfair, especially as no one seemed to be bothering with a tent or a fire for him. Only when everything was set up and in order, and night had fallen they did bother with something for their prisoner: a guard.

That guard was a dour fellow and a bad conversationalist to boot. The man readily shared his water-flask, and allowed Sokka a supervised trip to the sanitary facilities, but that was the extent of his helpfulness. He didn't seem to know anything; whether Sokka was getting any dinner, or what the plans for tomorrow were. Or if he did, none of it was 'his concern'. The water-tribesman was more than a little put out by this, but that might also have been because he had now missed lunch and dinner.

Sokka could only hope he was rescued before he starved to death.

"Who goes there?" called out his guard, and Sokka almost got his hopes up, until:

"Just me, soldier; at ease."

It was that damn back-stabbing prince again.

The soldier, of course, seemed to feel quite different about Zuko; he even gave a salute before slumping back relaxed.

Zuko returned the gesture with what Sokka guessed was a half-smile; it really was too dark to tell.

"Would you like a few minute's break, soldier?"

The fire-nation man eyed his prince only a moment, before claiming: "Well, I would sure like to relieve my bladder. And as long as our prisoner is in the hands of one of Azula's trusted men…"

"He'll be right here when you return, dear man. Not a hair out of place."

The soldier threw another half-salute, though he seemed to think better of it and smiled apologetically before walking off.

It occurred to Sokka that the prince was likely here to be thanked for helping him that morning. But Sokka was not about to comply. If that stupid prince thought Sokka was going to be grateful, he had another thing coming. The water-warrior only waited until he was sure the soldier had gone well out of ear-shot:

"This is your plan then? Your brilliant plan?"

The fire-bender straightened to throw Sokka an appraising glance.

"I don't think I know what you mean."

"Your plan," Sokka hissed, indignantly squeezing one fist in the other. "the plan in which you stand meekly at your sister's side and conveniently get in her way when she decides to blast someone to bits."

That sobered him: Zuko took one step forward, swallowed twice, and let his eyes dart to and fro, looking for anyone that might have heard.

Sokka didn't let it deter him; he drew himself up to his full height and endeavored to tower over the fire-nation prince.

"That has to be the _dumbest plan_ in the history of dumb plans." He yanked the chain on his wrists for emphasis. "What gives you the right to think you can protect me anyway? I am a warrior, and a chosen companion to the Avatar. I do not need, nor want your protection."

He had hit a nerve.

"I dunno." That scarred sneer was inches from his face. "Maybe, because you are a prisoner, and you cannot even bend?"

"And _you_can't do basic calculus, but I've never suggested _you_ were incapable of fighting your own battles, now did I?"

"I can too…"a confused blink. "And what does that have to do with anything?"

Sokka sighed, bringing up both hands to tap a finger at the side of his head.

"You bunch may fight with fire, but I fight with my brain."

A snort: "You think you can outsmart my sister while chained to the back of her tank? I'd like to see you try."

Sokka just narrowed his eyes though; argument won: "And _you_ think you can outsmart your sister while under her direct command? No, don't try; I've seen it. I was wrong: Azula _will_ kill you."

"Right." Zuko's tone was dry as he conjured up a bowl from behind his cape. "Does this mean you won't want this?"

_Food._

The water-tribesman was already three bits in before he remembered he should not have accepted. As it was a bit late for that, he feigned disgust instead.

"You call this dinner? There's barely enough here to feed a cat-owl."

"Hmm. Sorry. I ate the other half."

Sokka could only stare.

"By the cold debts, what is wrong with you, eating your prisoner's dinner? Is that some kind of weird Fire Nation fetish?"

"Oh. It's not your dinner. It's mine." Zuko's voice dropped to a conspirator's whisper. "You see, someone seems to have mentioned to the princess that you like food. So naturally, she has decided you should be starved."

That was just so wrong, on so many levels; Sokka didn't know what to say. So he just stared. The prince cleared his throat.

"I suggest you don't let her find out about any _other_ things you might like. She seems to be developing one of her unhealthy fixations on you. That means that, anything she might think you like, she will need to destroy. Obliterate."

"Your sister is deranged. You both are," Sokka explained helpfully. Still it was hard to stay mad at the older boy. Especially with the – well, food. And the prince had risked life and limb for him, sort of.

"How is your shirt?" The water-warrior offered by way of peace-offering, indicating Zuko's earth-green replacement. It seemed more… manly then to ask after actual damage to the other's person.

Zuko snorted. "There's an old lady soldier down at the far end of camp that says she can fix it, good as new. So I left it with her. Anyway, it's only singed a bit. I don't think Azula was actually trying to burn me."

"I'm sure. Lot of women soldiers down here, then?"

"You can't really tell with the face-plates and armor huh? But yeah, I guess a lot of them thought a job with the princess would yield equal opportunities for women. Half the fire-benders here are girls. At least a quarter of the soldiers." A shrug. "They shouldn't have bothered. Azula likes her officers big, burly and cruel."

"Just like her bwig bwother," Sokka could not help but jibe.

"I'm not…" If the young warrior hadn't known it was impossible, he would have been sure the prince was pouting."You think I'm cruel?"

"Cruel, evil and deranged," Sokka mock-cooed. But he jabbed the other's shoulder, hoping to convey his sarcasm. "Except for the dinner. That was mighty good-deranged of you. I think I will allow you to bring me food again."

The prince snorted and reached for his now-emptied bowl. He looked at it almost sadly.

"My uncle used to do this whole poor growing boy routine for me. Do you think I can get the cook fall for it?"

It was not until late at night that Sokka thought he should have asked why the hell a prince didn't just demand a second helping.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN:**** Update! Wow, hey dear readers! Sorry I took so long for this update. I have had it almost-done for a long time, but I have kept changing and fixing and mending it for at least a week, trying to get all the info in a pleasant enough way. I hope it was worth the effort. enjoy!**

**Credits:**** special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for being a wonderful beta!**

**Warnings:**** Azula! warning.**

**Disclaimer:**** do not own.**

**0000~S~0000**

The night was as miserable as the day. The ground was soggy, and the only place to hide from the ongoing rain was under the tank. Still, it was drafty, hard and way too cold for a boy with only a torn shirt to keep warm at night. Sokka had likely only dozed off seconds before he was awoken by a different guard, before sun-up. His new guard was a female, but hardly friendlier and most definitely no prettier. Then again, she seemed set on acting as un-womanly as possible: she scowled and spat, and when she escorted him to the sanitary facilities, she used too much force and way too many threats. There was apparently reason to hurry as she had her own camp to break up.

When they got there though, the woman surprised him by shoving a baked bun in Sokka's hands with another threat – this time it would be on both their heads if anyone found out, and then proceeded to stand a nervous vigil while the water-warrior shoved the food down.

Halfway through, Sokka had to ask. "What gives?"

The woman shrugged, a heavy gesture made worse by too much armor. "Lieutenant Malkum says your friends with Pri—with Zuko. The boy was General Iroh's charge. A lot of the older guys here say they owe General Iroh their lives."

She shrugged, again looking old.

"We may be Azula's, and we may be a bunch of sadistic murderers to boot. But some of us care about debts." One short glare, before she pointedly turned around to allow some privacy so Sokka could use 'the bush'. "Just remember, there's only a few of us that feel that way. You're lucky we've been taking care of you, Water-tribe."

After that, the woman proved to be a veritable gold-mine of information, unwilling though she remained. This small army-exempting the Dai Lee- had been with Azula since she had set out on her mission. That mission had been two-fold: capture or kill the Avatar, and to kill her brother and uncle.

That was new; apparently, both Zuko and his uncle had fallen out of favor- well, more than before even. But even Azula seemed capable of mercy, to hear this woman tell it: Iroh was taken into custody, and Zuko stripped off his title and forced into service. It didn't sound like much of a good deal to the water tribesman, especially as the ex-prince's "saving grace" had nearly killed Aang. Yet, the female soldier seemed to think Zuko should be thankful to the princess that he was alive at all.

Sokka tried to pry more out of the woman, but she only she left him alone at the tank's chain soon after, and mentioning again that he was lucky.

_Lucky, lucky, lucky!_

For someone lucky, Sokka sure felt miserable though. And then there was more walking, in the never-relenting rain. Sokka never thought he'd say it, but he had seen enough water for the rest of his life. Honestly, at least snow had the decency to be dry when it fell on you.

After a while the princess took up her perch once again, completely ignoring the panicked scampering as a soldier had to scramble up the tank to get a rain-shield above the young woman's head. The guy decided to make the jump from a close-walking komodo-rhino and nearly slipped down the tank's wet sides, but if he suffered any injuries from his near-fall, he did so in silence.

Azula stayed up there for at least half an hour, looking out alternatively to their destination and back at her army. Sokka caught her looking down his way twice though, with an expression akin to surprise on her face; almost like she hadn't expected him to still be there. Though the water-tribesman shuddered to think where else she had expected him. Probably down a ditch somewhere.

At mid-day the order to halt was called with finality, and Sokka found he'd been taken to the edge of land.

Serpent's Lake stretched before them, like a never-ending dark grey sheet turned to a puckered field by the downpour. The only clue that it was not, in actuality at sea, and he was standing on an island, was the fact that the beach curved concave, spreading on towards the horizon on both sides.

It truly was a sight to behold. But Sokka was soaked and cold, and all he could think when presented with that majestic vision was: '_Great, more water._' There was a resigned heaviness to the men and animals that made Sokka suspect he was not the only one to feel that way.

The princess however, Sokka had begun to understand, lived off other's misery. She was thus in high-spirits, and didn't even give her men a chance to set up a canopy before she marched out of her tank. There was a bit of consternation about that: all the soldiers on attending duty were working on setting up a canvas tent. When they noticed Azula out, several went off trying to find the umbrella in a hurry. But it had apparently been misplaced, and the attendants had a bit of a panic, while those left with the half-standing tent were stuck trying to hold up to the soggy, unbalanced mess.

Zuko also came up to them, in a steady trot. He seemed pretty worried too, but Sokka told himself that was because the other boy had appointed himself his protector, and probably didn't like the idea of his sister being alone with him with nothing better to do than resort to torture.

Oh. That thought turned out to not be consoling at all.

Sokka got his mind off such a worrying matter soon though, when one of the attendants finally returned with the missing umbrella. She seemed relieved to see Zuko, and probably figured the ex-prince had a far better chance of surviving showing up with the missing item late than she did. Mind made up, she shoved the rain-shield into the surprised boy's hands and rushed off to help with the tent.

The fire bender tried to call out to the girl, but as she was obviously otherwise occupied, Zuko just opened the umbrella, and placed it over a shoulder. He stood frowning into the distance with his free hand's thumb tucked in his sash.

Sokka mock-smacked himself in the face. Could the prince—correction, ex-prince actually be this stupid?

"Zuzu, what are you doing?" The princess had noticed before Sokka even had time for a sarcastic comment. But the elder brother turned to his sister with an unassuming deadpan.

"Some girl gave me an umbrella." The prince admitted. "It's kind of sweet, but I am soaked already, so I'm not sure why she bothered."

"It's for me, dum-dum."

"Oh." Zuko closed the umbrella, and held it out for his sister, like he was happy to be rid of it.

"You are supposed to hold it for her," Sokka found himself drawling. "You know, for the lady."

Zuko threw him a bewildered look, then stared at his sister.

Well, Sokka had to agree; he didn't think Azula was much of a lady either. But, as he'd guessed, Azula thought herself one. If nothing else, her fake, cultured laugh would tell you so. She even kept a slack wrist to her mouth as she chuckled.

"Oh, very good little pet. Tell me, are you hungry?"

"I am always hungry." Sokka shrugged, trying not to care. "Gran-Gran used to say she thought I was a living tapeworm. But it hardly matters now, I guess. As it's all about _you_, here."

As suspected, apart from humility, Princess Azula didn't get the concept of sarcasm either.

"That's right. I am the princess, what I say goes." Azula laughed. "Looky at that, Zuzu. I do think this savage has more understanding of court etiquette then you do. What do you say of that?"

If the sister was blind to banter, the brother was as bad when it came to the imminent dangers of his rabid sister. He shrugged, truly not bothered, gesturing at the line of animals at halt behind him.

"This komodo-rhino has more understanding if court etiquette than I. But I don't see why I should defend myself on that, now. The trees and squirrel-birds around here should hardly care a whit."

All Azula's attention had returned to her brother, and Sokka reasoned that was a good thing. Beneath notice was safer, surely. Still, waving a red flag under the komodo bull's nose might get its attention, but it was not calming it down.

"We won't be in this forest forever, Zuzu," she warned. "Once I capture the Avatar we will be going straight home."

Zuko just frowned down at the umbrella, revolving it slowly in his hands. Only the rain on leaves and water broke the silence, and the light was as solemn as the boy's expression. His sister had probably already dismissed him when he spoke, almost too softly to hear.

"You know, it's funny. But I think I remember saying something very much like that, about three years ago."

Oh, it was suicide, surely. Sokka watched the exchange carefully: Azula whipped back to fix her brother with snake-like eyes, while Zuko did a good impression of a clueless squirrel-mouse. With a predatory spring to her step the girl-prodigy closed the short distance between them, but Zuko responded slowly, looking for a moment baffled at her frown. Then he held out the umbrella out to her once more almost hopefully.

It was impossible; if Zuko really had this poor a survival instinct, he should not have survived his infant years.

Unless…

Sokka nearly laughed out loud, finally grasping the rules of play. Oh, he had misunderstood the fire bender's plans before, it seemed. Zuko was not just going to stand on the sideline.

He was also going to provide a conscience.

A conscience for his deranged homicidal sister, that was now on the brink of a temperamental explosion.

"I know Zuzu. That's why you are the failure-" she grabbed the umbrella from slack fingers with too much force, "-and I am the heir." Then Azula raised her voice to address all gathered. "The forces will set up a fortified camp. Meanwhile _my scout_ will explore the area."

The princess snapped her rain-shield open with a grim smile while her brother made a show of _not _voicing his complaints with a working jaw and a scowl.

All around, soldiers broke rank into a bustle, jumping to the additional tasks. Zuko disappeared; Azula's two girl-henchmen popped their head out of the tank only a moment, before the dreary one announced she'd be staying in. The acrobat giggled once, before taking one look at the princess and quietly following suit.

The troupe's captain had less sense then the girls though; he soon marched over and reported camp was ready. But Azula was obviously still upset, and commanded every soldier to come out to the lake's edge and practice formation maneuvers. The rain was coming down in buckets now, and Sokka felt half bad for the lot of them.

As a result, Sokka was left completely alone, to figure out how much of the present situation he could turn to his advantage. It appeared Sokka's hunt for air bender descendants was on indefinite hold. But a Southern water-tribe warrior was nothing if not adaptable, and there were opportunities here that could not be ignored.

Oh, Sokka was aware he was in immediate life-threatening danger. But, he had been getting used to that for a while now, and here, at the lake's edge, he just saw too many tempting opportunities. One hundred men: eighty Fire Nation, but perhaps not that loyal to the princess as she thought. Twenty Dai Li - not part of the group yet, obviously, the way they stayed separate. But, likely, Azula had taken those she thought she needed to keep an eye on. Not the loyal ones—those would be back in Ba Sing Se, ruling the city for her.

Interesting as these thoughts were, however, with the info he had, Sokka knew it was all just theory and speculation for now. And so it was only a matter of time before his mind started to wander.

In retrospect, Sokka thought it made perfect sense. They had, after all, chained an intelligent boy with an inquisitive mind to a technical marvel. Upon being left behind, Sokka had almost immediately decided to use said marvel's underside to hide from the rain once again. And, when Sokka had exhausted his thoughts and felt again miserably drenched and bored and in need to have something- anything to keep his mind of the gnawing hunger in his belly, that underside had caught his eye.

Sokka's place of refuge was a Walhalla of mysterious bolts and panels and hatches, all screwed shut with small bolts. Now, he might have been without a wrench, but the chain-links on his cuffs did, with a little tinkering with twigs, actually make good replacements.

And soon, Sokka had found an even better way to keep his mind off the gnawing hunger.

Sokka lay humming quietly to himself soon, up to his elbows in grease, with a particularly reflective piece of metal between his teeth to light his way. Soon the water-tribesman was completely engrossed in the miracle of engineering that was, this tank. Another bolt, deep within the machine's belly required a fine wrench, and Sokka had to add another twig to the chain-link he used. That was the easy part. Keeping said twigs in place during use was the frustrating part: the job made his fingers feel large and clumsy.

It didn't matter much; the job kept him busy, and after accommodating his make-shift wrench, this bolt too gave way to reveal secrets underneath. Sokka smiled at his small triumph.

"What in Agni's name are you doing?"

In his haste to get up, the water-tribesman bumped his head against metal plate. Stars exploded from the sides of his vision, and for a moment, all he could here was a low hum, like a great metal gong reverberating. But when the sound fell away Azula was still barking orders from the beach, and there was still the answering cries from her men as they ran through their 'exercises'. Sokka wondered for a crazy moment if perhaps the princess had thought of him during her fun, and decided to get one of her men to fetch him.

But, after a few vision-clearing blinks, Sokka relaxed.

"Oi, Jerk-bender! It's just you. Aren't you supposed to be scouting out the area?"

From where he crouched, looking down at Sokka past traction tires, the disowned prince made a disgusted sound.

"I am kind of done, but figure I might dawdle a bit with reporting. Formation drills in the rain are one thing, but Azula sounds angrier then when I left. Besides, with camp deserted, I figured I could sneak you dinner early." He gestured at the bolts and screws emphatically. "Put that back, water tribe! Azula will have your hide if she finds out you've been messing with her tank."

"I thought she already had my hide," Sokka deadpanned, but his face cleared when spied his dinner's content, and its size. "Now that's more like it."

Without pause, Sokka snatched up that wonderful bowl, rolled over to a half-sit as far as the low tank allowed, and started processing the food at high speed. After a moment, Zuko joined him under the ledge, trying for a comfortable position on back and elbows.

"I mean she will have your hide removed _from the rest of you_." The ex-prince glared towards the beach, as if daring anyone to come their way. "Agni help me, water-tribe, at least co-operate with the 'keeping you alive' thing I'm working on here?"

Zuko turned back to his new ally, and watched the water warrior dig in with a slight frown.

"The weirdest thing happened this morning. The Cook took me to the side and gave me a talking to. Apparently, I am _'way _too thin' and am required to _'eat double rations'_ until I've got '_some meat_' on me. He also urged me to seek him out for leftovers any time, so I took him on his word and pilfered the supplies." The fire bender paused, with another furtive glance around. "At the risk of sounding negative, you don't think Azula's setting us up for something do you?"

Sokka paused in stuffing his mouth, but only for a second.

"I think that that nice guard from yesterday talked to the chef and they're both human enough not to approve of starving a growing boy." Sokka did hesitate again though: "Why would you think differently?"

"Oh, paranoia, hopefully. It's just one of those things Azula does. Play along for a while, all the better to enjoy crushing my plans."

Sokka snorted.

"I have a better explanation, Jerk-bender. I think they're taking a liking to you."

"Who?"

The older boy looked worried.

"These men, Azula's soldiers." A hand full of greased rice hovered inches from Sokka's face, as he realized: "If you tried, I think you could turn them, have them become _our_ men instead of hers."

It was the kind of plan that made Sokka grin just thinking about it; become Azula's prisoner, and when work his way to take over her army from within. It was a beautiful brilliant and gutsy plan, all in one.

Zuko, however, was aghast.

"Do you know what you are suggesting? I may already be named a traitor, but to take a hundred men and women down with me—Do you even know what happens to the families of traitors?"

Annoyed at anyone criticizing his brainchild, Sokka arched an eyebrow. "Hmm? And what happened to yours then?"

"Well, Ozai wouldn't well excommunicate himself or his dear daughter, but it's still shaming. Azula likes to laugh it off, but she's pretty embarrassed about the whole deal really. She probably…"

"She probably thinks keeping you alive is more painful than a quick death, yeah; I got it, sun-ray optimist aren't you?" Sokka sighed, poking at a piece of chicken momentarily. "But that doesn't matter anymore, right_?_"

"I guess not." Zuko gave him a wry smile. "Because we're both down in the pits of despair now."

"No," Sokka tried patiently. "Because you are in a great position to build yourself an army for our cause." At Zuko's puzzled expression, he continued. "Can't you see it? Those men would be happy to follow you—a lot happier than they are now, at least. They respect you."

There was a moment the fire bender seemed to at least consider that idea. Then, the notion was discarded.

"Meh. That's just because of Uncle, which is completely unjustified as I am the one responsible for his arrest." Zuko paused. "He used to be a war-hero, you know. He still is a legend, to most. The Dragon of the West, the man that lead a 600-day siege against Ba Sing Se. They thought he would win too…"

There was a reverent tone to the fire bender's voice now, as Zuko talked about his uncle. Sokka thought that was a bit weird, for as far as he could remember, the prince had spent most of his time yelling at the old man. At any rate, Zuko's uncle was not here, and was therefore not a factor in Sokka's schemes.

"Azula is your little sister. Can't you, you know, challenge her?"

"As in an Agni Kai? Well, that would have worked, if I could win. Sadly, right now it would be suicide." Zuko blinked at him, looking oddly self-conscious. "I think I've finally figured out why all fire benders are evil."

They were all doing it to him, Sokka decided: talking round in circles around the actual facts, leaving him to fill in the blanks. The female guard had danced around the facts, and now Zuko was doing the same. It was generally established that Fire Nation folk did not lie easily. Well, they may not lie, but they sure liked to make puzzles out of their words. But Sokka liked a good puzzle.

First things first; establish how far Zuko's alliance would stretch.

"But you're not evil now, remember? You became good? You are _on the Avatar's side now_, right?"

"Right, and that is exactly what has caused the problem." That the ex-prince did not even pause to consider the relevance of the question was actually a good thing. Zuko rolled his mismatched eyes, turning inward as he considered this problem. Whatever it was, Sokka could tell that Zuko had himself not even considered it too closely; he was possibly afraid of doing so.

"Or I think changing sides has caused the problem. Or maybe I just don't get angry enough anymore—well, it's been hard to do the whole righteous indignation thing once I started considering I might have, you know, got what was coming to me. Not that I think Azula should be allowed to do the things she has been doing, or actually it is allowed, because she is allowed to because she is a princess. But it's still not nice, and she shouldn't. So I guess I should get mad, and I suppose I should fight her. Not that I was ever much of a match against my sister, mind you. But right now..."

Zuko trailed off, another half-shrug conveying the impossibility.

With great difficulty, Sokka fought the urge to call the ex-prince out on the fact that the only problem there seemed to be with the plan was that Zuko was too much of a pansy to fight his little sister. Whatever else, the boy that had followed the Avatar around the world had never acted a coward. If Zuko said he couldn't beat his sister, it was likely true.

Still, whatever holes the fire bender might see in his new friend's plans, Sokka found a lot worse with the ex-prince's.

"And so you've decided to throw yourself at Azula's mercy, and try and do some good from here."

"I guess."

"Mercy, of which – do I actually need to remind you – your sister has absolutely none."

That finally gave the fire bender pause- if he actually was still a fire bender. The mind boggled. Zuko blinked.

"Well, I suppose if you look at it like that, it's kind of risky, but she is my little sister, and…"

"Zuko, take it from one big brother to another."

"Hmmm?"

"Little sisters are always convinced their brothers are indestructible." Sokka fixed the ex-prince with a worried frown. "She'll be more shocked than you when she actually manages to kill you."


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello dear readers! Oh, boy! are you excited to find out where I'm going with this? Well, im excited to show, anyway.**

**Special thanks to the wonderful Gift Of Dragons, for beta-ing once again!**

**0000~Az~0000 **

Azula moved through her stances with practiced ease, flowing from one high-level kata to the next. The rain had finally relented that night, and a good, strong morning sun was drying the ground and trees in good speed. The air around the princess was clean-washed, crisply humid and it made her fire crackle in rebuff of the wet, but it was not an unpleasant way of waking. Yes; her daily routines back in order brought discipline and rest to her mind, returning Azula to that state of control and perfection that was her birthright.

And yet, her concentration was incomplete. All sorts of distractions both inside and outside seemed set on making life difficult. Thoughts like: why had the Avatar not come to his friend's rescue yet? The week of allotted time was near gone. How was Azula supposed to catch the brat if he couldn't even show up for a simple appointment? She knew she was already starching Lord Father's commands. How long had she left, before father would demand her immediate return home?

Father demanded perfection, and only Azula could provide. But she needed the Avatar's smoldering corpse for that. And what of the little water tribe peasant? How was it possible that he was still in one piece after a good forty-eight hours at her mercy? Bigger men then him had fallen to pieces at her hands without her even trying in half that time. And yet, everything she had thrown his way so far seemed to slide off of him like the rain.

And now, from her periphery, another annoyance joined in: her failure big brother had finally joined them at the practice field her men had prepared yesterday. But, instead of bowing his greetings and starting his own katas, Zuko slid down against the trunk of a tree, positioning himself to catch the sun's rays. And made himself comfortable.

Ty Lee was dutifully doing flips, off on the side. Mai was throwing her knives at another tree.

Only Zuko procrastinated in sloth: _how had her brother gotten so lazy in only three years without supervision?_ Azula blamed Uncle; the old doting idiot, and told herself it would all be okay, once she got her brother home to daddy. Yet it remained a thorn in her side, and fire prodigy could not help but throw warning glances his way. Zuko seemed oblivious though: stretched out against the stem of that old oak, hands pillowed behind him and eyes closed in appreciation of the low sun.

_Not just lazy—downright reckless! _How anyone could relax with her–Azula, heir to the Fire Nation's throne and prodigy fire-bender!–within striking range was beyond the princess's understanding.

Seriously, had he no sense at all? Or maybe, the princess was not all that evil as she thought she was. Maybe, she was a monster already losing her teeth. That would explain why her newest prisoner was still un-bloodied, and more annoyed than justly terrified. Oh, please, Agni! Let that not be true! The next thing she knew, Azula might well find herself stealing turtle-duck eggs to try and nurse them in her bed and raise them as her children.

You know, like some idiot boy Azula had known long ago.

The princess shivered, imagining her father's cold, disapproving stare tearing through her slim frame; a look that one did not have to face up to feel. One that could pick your head apart and probe the content, and if... –no, when Lord Father would find those insides lacking…

Her brother rolled to the side to scratch his back, and Azula could stand no more.

"Don't you need to practice, Zuzu dear?"

Lethargically, Zuko rolled to his previous position against the tree, opened his good eye, and brought up a hand to shield it from the sun, addressing her.

"I am practicing; I am practicing relaxing."

Azula's temper flared.

"Well I think now it's about time you practice fire-bending, don't you? Get up and let's see your forms."

Suddenly, the princess realized the rhythmic _thunk_ of knives hitting bark had stopped. Ty Lee, too, was staring, practice-routine forgotten; both girls were regarding the exchange with badly disguised worry. Good; at least they knew to fear the princess.

Her brother, apparently, had less sense. "I'd really rather not." An unconcerned shrug followed. "I haven't progressed nearly as much as you have, sister-dear. And I was never in the same league as you anyway. I'd just be embarrassing you in front of your army."

Her laugh was just a little shy of hysterical.

"Don't worry, Zuzu; you are already embarrassing me."

A nod, and his open eye slid close. "Sorry about that."

Apparently, brother-dear thought that finished the conversation.

Well, maybe it was time for a little lightning practice; she gracefully let the sparks gather, let them dance from one hand to the other. _Now, where to send it…_ Mismatched eyes shot open, and her brother sat up; her challenging smirk met his slightly worried frown.

"Alright," her brother admitted, in clear defeat. "Seems like enough relaxing for one day...

"Who wants some lemonade?"

Lightning exploded in a badly-aimed discharge of anger.

"Do you know what?" Azula sang. "I think practice is done for today. Why don't you bunch relax some, I need to see my prisoner."

She was stalking off towards her tank with a swagger that picked up as she moved. Yes. She needed to blow off some steam. The idea made her feel better. Voices flared up behind her, and that also served to calm the Fire Princess. But then Ty Lee suddenly bounded next to her, which was more than a little odd.

"I'll accompany my princess." The girl claimed, too lightly. Then, either by explanation or change of subject: "You aura sure is pretty today. All purple and yellow and swifily."

Azula just growled, once again annoyed; and this time not even sure why. She found little consolation when the man on guard straightened and threw her a panicky salute. The water-tribe boy was stretched out long on the ground, also indulging in sun-bathing. At least he sat up when he noticed the princess.

"Where is the Avatar?"

The boy met her eyes a moment, before sighing.

"Didn't we go over this before?"

"Your hero is late. He should have been here by now!"

"I know."

He looked up at her, eyes twinkling, like it was all a bit funny. Azula stamped her foot, and then stamped it again, kicking dirt towards the infuriating boy.

"Don't just sit there, idiot! Fix it; make him come here before I start taking you apart!"

The action calmed her down somewhat, and so Azula kicked up a few more sloppy mud sprays towards the infuriating peasant. Sadly, the boy seemed hardly intimidated; only raised his hands to shield his eyes from the mud, then dropped them calmly when the mud-barrage ended.

"What do you want me to do princess? I'm chained to your tank! And hardly by choice, kinky as it is…"

Realizing his mistake, the water-tribesman winced. But the damage was already done, and she could not help feel glee at the wonderful excuse he had just provided her. So the princess squinted at the boy, eye narrowed the way she had practiced to perfection. He looked somewhat cowed, but Azula accepted nothing short of perfection in all things; and in this situation, that would be him cowering in terror. So the prodigy worked up the rage farther, feeling a familiar pit of heat gather in her gut as her breath quickened.

He was just an icky thing that should have remained beneath her notice. That his wide-eyed blues had caught her attention was bad enough—but to smart-mouth her...

At this moment, Ty Lee chose to cut in, laughing merrily:

"See? I told you he was cute! Cute and funn_y!_"

Azula's gaze left her target with an eerie slowness, and settled on her oblivious companion. Then, with a stiff hand, the princess grabbed the girl's pig-tail and cut through it with fire.

The acrobat screamed, dropped on her ass and patted out what was left of her hair. Azula dropped the flaming braid and turned, feeling oddly satisfied.

"Guard, stop your lollygagging. My guest is far too comfortable, fix it. I need to get ready for the Avatar."

Inside the tank, with the hatch open, Azula brushed her hair to the music of a friend wailing and an enemy grunting as fists hit his flesh.

**0000~Z~0000**

It was night once again, and Sokka paused in stuffing his face only long enough to stick fingers in his mouth gingerly.

"I think your friend chipped my tooth. Seriously; so you call this protection?"

Personally, Zuko thought that a few bruises were a best-case scenario when dealing with his sister. Nor did he feel it was fair for Sokka to refer to the guard-soldier that had dealt him a beating as Zuko's friend. Though, the man had sought out the ex-prince soon after and had apologized for the deed. Like the man had an actual say in the matter. Oh, and hadn't Sokka been explicit that he didn't even need Zuko's protection?

Instead of voicing such thoughts, he offered: "Sorry about that."

Because, despite all these facts, Zuko did feel more than a little guilty.

But Mai had not been willing to let him go; had been right willing to physically restrain Zuko from following his sister by latching herself onto his arm. Such a public display of caring – not to mention the physical contact involved – was rare for Mai. Yet she had felt it warranted. According to his dear friend, Zuko had been inches removed of getting a lightning bolt down his throat, and had to be kept away from his sister out of safety precautions.

In the face of so much worry, Zuko had assented when their acrobat-friend had offered to go instead.

"I kind of thought Ty Lee had a handle on it." The ex-prince offered by way of explanation.

"Your sister had a handle on her instead. Then, she went and burned it off. Where were you anyway?"

Sokka snorted, but Zuko winced. Yeah; Ty Lee had already given her tearfully retelling of that event. Cutting hair was always a big thing for Fire Nation people, and Zuko felt guilty for that incident as well.

Zuko _should_have been there. He should not have been with Mai, taking a walk and listening to her listing her worries. She might have framed them as accusations, but honestly, it was nice to know the dour girl cared so much. Truly, Zuko had been more than a little distracted. And then Ty Lee had shown up, tear-streaked, and started him down a guilt-trip that appeared bottomless.

Mai, however, had simply deadpanned him, pointing out that he had already lost his topknot, and see? What would Azula have seen fit to burn off if that option was no longer viable.

Actually, by Fire Nation standards, Ty Lee had by far suffered the most.

Sokka, of course, seemed to have a different view of the world. He was feeling up his jaw again. "That guy must have dislocated my jaw. Your sister really hates me, doesn't she?"

For Agni's Sake! What a whine. The guard had obviously gone easy on the boy, only bruising him for show. The water-warrior would be fit as rain in days. Guarding the fact that he annoyed anyone into strangling him; Zuko could well see that happening. His own fingers were itching right now.

"Actually, I am pretty sure she has a little crush on you."

At least that statement shocked Sokka out of his bout of self-pity. "That's ridiculous– how can you even think that?"

"Well…"Zuko admitted a little gleefully. "I haven't actually asked her of course. And even if I did, I can never tell when Azula is lying. But…"

"But…"

"The good news is, all methods of your execution suggested until now have been rejected on either being too short, or not supplying enough of a spectacle."

_"Execution!"_Sokka managed to calm his voice down after his half-cry, continuing. "Then why the hell do you think you sister has a crush on me?"

"As said, I haven't asked. But Azula's actions make a lot more sense to me since I've started imagining she's trying to love me to death."

"Love? You fire-nation sicko's…" Sokka moaned though, remonstrating: "It is official then: I _am_ a chick magnet. Worse: a princess magnet."

"It helps me not revert to fight or flight when she looks my way." Zuko half joked, then considered: "This has happened before?"

"Yue. She was a princess at the North Pole. She totally had a thing for me."

"And I thought the spirits had it in for me. My condolences, Water-tribe."

That seemed to anger the water-boy. "She wasn't like that. She was an absolutely sane, wonderful person. I would have loved to marry and spend the rest of my days with her." Sad sigh. "Then, she turned into the moon."

"Oh, that's kind of–"

"Sad, I know."

"Right, well. Just don't cause Azula to change into the sun." _Or anything similarly ludicrous_. Still, Zuko had promised to take people on their word.

"Why ever not?" Sokka countered, with a definite upward quirk of the lips. "She's perfect for the job description. Looks nice from a distance, but as soon as you get close BOOM, you're burned."

Zuko grinned back, but then sobered suddenly. "This might become a problem though. I'd have thought you'd have been rescued by now.

"What's keeping the Avatar?"

**0000~A~0000**

"I'm lost." Aang explained, for what must have been the thousands time. "I can't play with you guys. I have to get back. My friends need me."

Another step trough muddy spirit-swamp; dark swirly colors taking the shapes of blurry trees, and vortexes of too heavy liquids catching at his calves with every pull of his legs. Again, Aang cursed the fact that he could not bend in this place. Every step took forever, and he had no idea where he was going. If only he could have flown; found his way above the tree-tops to at least get his bearings.

His companions, however, seemed not to be weighed down by such facts. Dragons, even baby-dragons, could apparently fly anywhere.

_Yes, need. Friends. Play. Happy. good. Fun._ The pair chimed, happily as they danced and snaked amongst the black foliage.

"No no! No play. I can't. I have to help them. This is serious."

_Serious? Are you of iron and stone? Come, play with us. Frolic in the sky. What more is there but fun and game and food?_

That was the crimson male again. Games and fun seemed to be his thing. At first, Aang had thought the two would be hard to tell apart but for their colors. But now, he was starting to see they had quite the personalities. The red liked to play tricks –when he came close, he was as like to slither past as take a playful bite.

The black was different in that; she was as playful as her brother, but her nibbles and games seemed to be excuses for snuggling and cuddling more than anything else. She was either wrapping her long serpentine body around her brother's, or draping herself on Aang's tired shoulders.

There was no clear passage of time in the spirit world –if that was even where Aang was. But, instinctively, Aang knew he had to find a way out and soon. It must have been days, by now. But how to get out, remained a bit of a problem. He recognized nothing from this place, this primal jungle. He could not see what was beyond, and the sensation of being boxed in was weighing heavy upon the Avatar's soul. And yet, whenever he reached for the shadows of vines and plants, they dissolved in his hands.

He had walked and walked in this nothingness for a long, long time before the two little dragon-spirits had found him again: the crimson and the black.

The pair had been ecstatic to find him, and Aang had been hopeful that the two could help him at first. But so far, they had only provided company. They seemed to draw strength from his presence though, and the pair of dragons was as solid as the Avatar by now. More so, as Aang was only in his spiritual form.

"Help me find my body, please."

_Is it a game of hide-and-seek?_ Asked the black, innocently. _But then why _your_body? That would be boring and easy. _

The crimson male pounced on that: _Let's seek _our_ bodies instead. Yes? Seek is fun!_

_No no! _Provided the black, obviously seeing too little chance for snuggles during 'seeking'. _We should do more tag and chase._

_Seek!_

_Chase._

_Seek!_

_Chase!_

"No. I need to find my body, now." Aang, exasperated, raised his voice. "Don't you understand? How serious this is? THERE IS A WAR ON!"

He was yelling at the end, and when Aang fell silent there was a hurried flutter. Suddenly, he was alone.

Truly, absolutely, alone.

And Aang felt a pang of guilt. For all their big talk, the dragon cubs were only babies.

"Wait! I am sorry. I didn't mean to scare you!"

It was quiet for a whole minute more, but then the red male fluttered around Aang's ankle.

_Not scared._It scoffed, nipping at the boy's heels offended. _Dragons are brave._

Soon, the black returned as well, and it went as far as nuzzling the air bender's nose.

_I too._

Aang sighed, relieved. Why did he let his temper get the better of him? If anything, he should be able to understand their carefree nature. He had been the same, after all, only as little as half a year ago? _Where had it all gone wrong…?_

It was the war, of course, and the sense of responsibility weighing him down. Dragging him to the ground. Stealing his freedom. Aang was jealous, he realized. The dragons were still free, while he had been bound and chained down by duties he had never wanted. An air bender's free spirit? He could wish for it, but he was the Avatar. And Aang had learned the hard way that shunning his responsibilities would cause his friends pain.

It was sad; beyond sad. He was the last air bender, and yet, he was no longer one of them. Thus, the air benders were now truly dead.

Just like the dragons…

Or did they have to be? Responsibility, sure. But there was no reason to be rude. Also, he had tried to stay focused, and the act only seemed to slow him down, in this place.

"Do you know what?" Aang decided. "I think I can spare a little time to play with you two after all."

The pair chirruped in merriment.


	16. Chapter 16

Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for his invaluable work as beta.

0000~AZ~0000

The next day started out with the appearance of perfection.

When the princess emerged from her tank after breakfast, her water-tribe pet woke, cast her one disdainful look, then actually sniffed and turned to his other side like some scorned schoolgirl. Azula laughed heartily at that, and at the dark stains on his face and chest. It always felt good to know another one of her subjects had understood the futility of resisting her rule, and this seemed to count double for her dark-skinned savage.

Ty Lee was suitably cowed as well. She had not even showed for breakfast, but was dutifully present for morning exercises, and kept her gaze firmly cast away from her liege-lady. Only Mai had enough bravery left to throw Azula the occasional reproving glance. The dour girl even went as far as giving her acrobat-friend a soothing rub across the shoulders once.

Azula didn't really understand why her knife throwing lady-in-waiting bothered. Ty Lee looked absolutely ridiculous with short hair; it curled and stood up straight around her head, and was quite the sight. Adding her red, puffy eyes to the picture, and Ty Lee looked the kind of fright the princess would have hidden under a carpet had there been a palace retinue to see.

Besides, the usually perky girl had obviously fallen out of favor, so if Mai had half a brain, she would have avoided Ty Lee like the plague. Not that Azula thought she could rightfully accuse any girl that willingly would kiss Zuzu-_'half-face'_ of having a brain.

Regardless, two out of three was good, and Mai would mess up soon enough to warrant some form of punishment. So, all in all, the princess was having a good morning.

It got even better. Azula had only just finished her warm-ups when Zuko came back from his latest scouting trip. He reported with badly hidden exasperation that there was still only the one village by the lake-side, and that there was still no sign of the Avatar, his allies or the bison. Zuko didn't add that he doubted him walking around in circles all night would change much to that situation out loud, but his body-language was easy enough to read.

Azula nodded thoughtfully through his report, and then suggested he scouted some more to the South.

And, score!

Obvious as a trap it was, this time Zuzu took the bait. There was definitely smoke coming from her brother's hands, and insults were brewing. Still, with agonizing difficulty, Zuko bit them back. On his third attempt to speak, her big brother had apparently gathered his thoughts well enough to attempt civility.

"I've been up all night looking. Think of something a _little less pointless _for me to do."

Ah; and there it was. Bait swallowed, hook snagged. All Azula had to do was reel him in. Perhaps Zuko realized his error, because he paled visibly at her wolfish smile.

"Alright Zuzu. Let's _spar_ instead."

It was a victory Azula had steered for all these last two weeks. And this time Zuko had little chance to get out of her challenge.

Indeed, he did not; for out here, the princess's word was law.

Sadly, the match - which she predictably dominated from start to finish - remained oddly unsatisfactory. The reason for this was apparent enough. How Zuko could have decided a sparring session did not necessarily mean he had to fire-bend, Azula just couldn't fathom. But whoever had put that stupid notion in her brother's head, the princess was convinced it was the person that had taught him that fire-balls could also be interpreted as very hot dodgeballs.

It was not funny at all.

In fact, a person of less mental control then Azula might well have been incited by her brother's behavior.

As it was, the young fire-bending prodigy stoked her inner fires with emotion only on the inside, and held a rigidly smooth façade up to the world. She was a burning furnace, always held with an iron lid. Complete control. Azula did, of course, resort to goading. But that was just to draw Zuzu out of his funk.

"Let's see you fight, brother!" Azula challenged, casting another blue ball of fire.

Zuko dodged it cleanly, side-stepping with a shift of his weight to the left, in a move that was decidedly not part of any Fire fighting style. He turned his head to follow the blue-hot miniature comet as it passed only inches from his face. It scourged itself into one of the tree trunks outside the training area. After a little explosion, it left a smoking hole. Zuko stared at that a good second before turning back to his sister with an almost wounded expression.

Azula was not impressed.

"Fire is Anger. Fire is Rage."

It was easy to tell who was the prodigy, and who was the wash-up. There was no competition; no doubt. But by now all Azula was trying for was just a spark out of her brother. She balled her fists and strode forward menacingly.

"Rage is our power. It is what makes us strong."

Still, nothing. It was sad, and yet Zuko's deadpan expression only made her fire burn hotter. The princess leaned in, jutting her chin out at him in fury.

"Where is your rage?"

Her opponent's shrug was weak; almost apologetic. Even dear Zuzu knew that without rage, he would be nothing. Rage was where a Fire-bender's power came from. Of course, Zuko's usually burned him as readily as any enemy. Zuzu had no control. He was too passionate, too stupid to think before acting.

This was why Azula was better; she was always calm. Always calm… And in control. And yet, the idea that Zuzu would have doused that beautiful fire just because he could not control it…

The dead shell that had been her passionate brother answered quietly, if perhaps a little desperately.

"Sis…"

Azula snapped; she turned full circle and threw a streak of flame high at her brother's face with a blade-like straight arm. He ducked and spun as well, swooping a low an extended leg against her ankle, taking her foot right out from under her.

There was a moment of freefall, where her vision blurred with speed. There was a jarring halt only a moment later. There were dark long-lined claws on a white field filling her vision.

Azula blinked, identifying the dark claws across white as branches half-obscuring the white cloudy sky. The greatest fire-bender of her age was lying flat on her back, dazed from a simple trip.

Somebody was going to _burn._

With a growl, the princess righted herself, only to see her brother duck behind a tree on the edge of the cleared training area.

"Stand still and fight me, you coward." She roared, words punctuated by flames shooting all the way from her fingers to that tree. A resounding crack, and the tree smoked, likely dead from her lightning attack.

The princess breathed; once, twice. Starting fire and letting it turn to lightning was a bit disconcerting. She had not even known it was possible, really. Besides, there was no reason to get upset.

She was calm.

In control.

Was not her little Zuzu-dear running away and hiding from her right now? That was rather pleasant. Yes; Azula could just milk this feeling. Having a brother that cowered at the sight of her was slightly less appealing then having one that bucked and chafed at her yoke with little success, but she could get used to it.

Then, he went and ruined the moment by taking a quick peek at his sister.

"We're fighting? I thought we were _sparring._"

At least his expression had not been one of glee- Azula thought she might have exploded if her brother had been pleased with the slight he had dealt her. But that unimpressed tone coupled with a slack jaw could have given his dear doting Mai a run for her money.

Brother was a broken thing, truly. For, it now appeared he had not only lost the ability to rage, but also to fear.

It ached, and she called him out on it:

"Whatever. Stop evading and fight!"

Three consecutive fire-balls, each at a different tree as her target moved from one wooden shield to the next. In a state of rapture born from that inner flame she carried, an arching kick fought itself free, spreading out a horizontal ring of fire. From that strength, fire found the heat to cut wood, and the trees in that ring groaned loudly as barks were sectioned clean through.

A vexed sound came unbidden from the princess's throat. "I cannot believe how craven you've become."

Zuko had simply pressed himself to the ground, letting her fire pass over. He righted himself with a spinning scissor-feet jump. Again, no flames came in answer. Again, his landing stance was hardly threatening.

"I thought I was. Or would you prefer if I just stand still with my hands up and eyes closed until you're done?"

Azula answered with a laugh.

That did sound like fun, and it occurred to her only now that she could order him to do just that. Would he comply? Zuzu had certainly held still enough when Lord Father had burned him. And she was His heir. Azula would be the next Fire Lord. It seemed only logical to follow in His footsteps. To do all that had to be done. Because she could.

And because Zuzu deserved it; brother-dear had it coming, so she had decided in her head. Curse him, with his annoying calm ways, and his flat-out refusal to respond to her goading. Her new scout might take orders, but Zuzu was still far from under control.

Just for that, the princess thought he had to be punished. No; looking at it like that, Azula not only could. She should. The princess had an obligation to uphold the law. Out here, Azula's word _was law_.

Out here, for all intents and purposes, Azula already was the Fire Lord.

Control.

The trees moved oddly, and her brother seemed momentarily distracted by their sounds. Fire-freed upper trunks started sliding, parting form their buried pedestals with wavers and groans. Azula was unbothered, stepping forward with a ball of heat already building in her palm.

It was almost like falling into a trance. She would do it, right now. This would separate the boys from the…_prodigy princesses_.

Zuzu didn't even see it coming. He was turning in place, eyes wide. And then Zuko was actually running _towards_ Azula.

Her deceitful gut-of-fire wrenched upward in elation, thinking brother had decided, finally, to fight. Thinking for that one giddy moment, that she had been wrong, and Zuzu-dear had not committed that most wretched of sins and simply doused his inner flame into nothing.

Then, her brother had passed her. And with a tug on the sleeve he pulled her into motion, adding the simplest of words.

"Run!"

She did.

All the way to the beach, where her tank stood parked. Soldiers threw the pair of running siblings only one startled glance, before noticing the groaning from the side of camp, and joining that mad dash. Even her lazy water-tribe pet sprang to his feet as they came running, dust and leaves hard on their trails.

The forest roared; raged. Like a mad beast awakened. Groaning wood was its voice. Canopies crashing down like its paws stamping the earth.

When the dust had cleared and the silence had returned. –deafening, as not one of her men dared uttered a sound, Azula turned and surveyed the wreckage.

It took her two breaths, but then she was laughing, and poking a finger at her still-panting brother.

"See that? Now _that_ is the power of the heir to the Fire Nation."

Ah, yes. She had done this. She had felled a dozen trees in one single sweep. And now, Azula would make good use of the deed too. She would make this work—no, better. This was _exactly as planned. _

She would charge little Zuzu with clearing their training site before tomorrow morning. Oh, the princess knew he would get help from some of the soldiers. But even if they all chipped in, getting that many trees cut and out of the way in one day would be nearly impossible.

And when she woke up tomorrow, and they were still at it, Azula would have herself a grand good time punishing the slackers.

Because she was Lord here.

Top of the food-chain.

And everyone knew it. Even dear Zuzu dared not challenge her, and so she ruled. She…

Azula's heart dropped. There was a bird of prey sitting quietly on her tank's main gun. It quietly groomed its feathers, uncaring of the falling trees. The sight of it wiped Azula's head of all schemes and plots.

It was a messenger hawk, she knew. And the red crop of feathers making up its mane marked it as a royal bird.

It was a missive from her Lord Father.

0000~S~0000

"It's my buffed body. Not a woman alive can deny me." Sokka said, puffing out his chest and with a show of bravado.

Zuko could not help himself; he slid a quick eye past the other boy's still well-filled frame, and rolled a proverbial eye. Sokka was not fat. But how he managed to retain that slightly chubby look, despite the unwanted diet of only a nightly meal, confounded Zuko. Thoughts of water-tribe temperatures and blubbery diets did provide ample suggestions.

Oblivious, Sokka grinned and flexed.

"That's right. An hour of sword-practice every evening for the last month." He patted his belly; still rather exposed due to his ruined shirt. "Check out these abs."

Yes; in the arctic wild those soft lines of flab might be likened to the muscle on a tiger-walrus. And good isolation was probably very important to all living things at the poles, man or beast.

Not that Zuko cared one twit. If the water-tribesman had to insist on inane chatter, couldn't he have decided on the weather? Sadly, Sokka seemed far from done.

"Did I mention my _other_ girlfriend, Suki? She was not quite a princess, but the leading warrior of her village. Totally in love with me. Come to think of it, she also showed it by beating me up."

The disowned prince could take no more. Courtesy was one thing, but when something important came up, Zuko had always been the type to do away with any formalities. Alright; he had never had patience for formalities categorically. But he had been willing to better here too, had it not been for this _imminent threat of death _looming over Sokka that he seemed dead-set on ignoring.

"Why are you telling me this? You should be planning your escape, Sokka."

The water-tribe boy shrugged, lounging on his side with half-laden eyes. For once, Zuko had acquired so much food that the boy had opted to take a break half-way. And with all the soldiers cleaning up the sparring area, it seemed safe enough to take the time.

"Escape, Swa-shape! There's much more to be gained from this."

This time, Zuko could not help himself; the easy dismissal kindled a rage within him. With the amount not just he, but so many soldiers had already risked. With what Ty Lee had sacrificed to keep Sokka safe, how could the water-tribesman be so uncaring? The ex-prince's fingers twitched and he knew there were thin plumes of smoke trailing up from his palms.

That little heat was close to the best he could manage, by now. But the evidence of losing his bending had dropped in shock-value, as it was old news. So Zuko ignored it all in favor of making his argument.

"Don't play around, Sokka. My sister has a history of breaking her toys. It's time to leave."

"Meh. I have her eating out of my hand." Sokka raised his right, to indicate such, but then unbalanced himself when the chains drug his supporting arm out from under him. Somehow, the water-warrior managed to land himself flat in the mud with that. Zuko ground his teeth. He was suspected the other of playing the fool simply to derail any arguments. Therefore, Zuko plowed right on.

"You think you've figured out my sister? I highly doubt that."

With only a mediocre amount of theatre, Sokka collected his face out of the mud, and then eyed his ally dryly.

"You doubt me? Very well, let's see if I have Azula pegged right."

Narrowing eyes, Sokka placed both palms together under his face, and then recited in an odd monotone:

"Your sister craves attention like the sun, but only knows how to get it by lashing out. She thinks of everything in terms of power and control. She idolizes her father, who is a _mass-murderer_ –sorry there, Jerk-face. The only emotions she thinks a person is allowed are either rage or sadistic joy. How am I doing so far?"

"Right. Let me rephrase that." Zuko conceded. "You cannot possibly imagine what she is capable of."

Another one of the casual shrugs by the water-warrior, and he leaned back on one elbow.

"Well, that would be because I am, actually, sane."

The water-tribesman threw another one of those smug looks before continuing: "I have had around twenty different guards since I came here. Twenty men, protecting me from Azula to their best abilities. Even the guy that beat me. Zuko, _you told me_ he went out of his way to go easy on me."

At least Sokka waited for a nod of affirmation before continuing.

"Out of ninety Fire-Nation soldiers Azula brought, twenty will likely take your side the first chance they get. And I have yet to meet this Malkun character. There's also the Dai Lee, of which I still have little feel. But these twenty; if you could just _talk_ to them, Zuko, I'm sure they'll…"

"One: you might not have noticed, but inflaming speeches are not my thing." Zuko cut in angrily. "Two: I refuse to turn honorable men and women into traitors."

Though he was angry himself, Sokka's glare made the ex-prince wince.

"I thought we passed that station, Zuko. I thought you were on the good side, now."

"I am!" Zuko interjected, desperately. "Which is why I don't like a plan that will be the death of these men _and their families_."

With helpless and wide gestures, Zuko tried to convey the point to his glaring companion. It seemed to work, in the end, for Sokka sighed slowly.

"What about Azula?"

"Lousy temperament aside, I think, with time, we might be able to sway her." Zuko paused only a moment, pointing out. "But, Sokka. We _have no time_. Azula's been summoned home. My father was quite explicit when he sent me away. He told me to return with the Avatar in chains, or not at all."

"So, what?"

"Well, Azula plans to take me home as well. And the only thing we have in chains is one little water-tribe peasant."

Sokka only cast a cheeky grin. "Oh, suddenly I'm not good enough anymore?"

"Nothing is ever good enough for my father, trust me. And no, you do not want to meet him."

Zuko desperately hoped the other understood what he was saying. Nobody said no to Azula, but Father was a hundred times worse. Everyone—everyone followed Fire Lord Ozai's commands to the letter, and then just hoped he didn't misremember them when the time came.

Everyone did, because everyone that did not simply had simply ceased to exist.

Zuko was not looking forward to stepping back into his Father's overbearing shade of influence. But, he was beginning to suspect, neither was Azula.

"Please, escape."

Sadly, it seemed a water-tribesman simply could not comprehend the enormity that was the Fire Lord. Sokka lounged back again, looking relaxed. Then, he challenged in a self-assured voice:

"You first."


	17. Chapter 17

Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for his invaluable work as beta. Characters and setting derived from the wonderful world of Avatar TLA.

0000~S~0000

Sokka polished off the last of his meal, then lay back to watch the stars.

He still liked his plan. Steal Azula's army, capture her… perhaps even, as Zuko suggested, convince her to see their way. But the Fire Prince was just not cooperating. All he seemed to be willing to do was shoot that beautiful plan to bits and bring up counter arguments. Sokka was not really surprised. As far as Zuko could see, the Water tribesman was just the Avatar's goofy friend.

The young warrior knew he could practice linguistics all night, explain every plan the gang had executed worth its mint had been his brain-child. But none of it would make any difference to the exiled Prince. Zuko might treat him with kindness, might even respect his new ally for his resourcefulness. But that did not change the fact that Sokka could never hold authority in the older boy's eyes.

Sokka knew why. In the Fire Nation, authority was derived from status. Status was derived from power, and power was the equivalent of fire-bending power.

By Fire Nation rules, Sokka suffered from a disability far worse than Toph's blindness: he was not a bender.

For someone shunned and disowned by his own people, Sokka thought Zuko rather conservative in his viewpoints. Thought it was doubtful the ex-prince was even aware of it. Disregarding non-benders came naturally to those gifted with the elements, and calling out that prejudice was useless, Sokka knew. It had never worked with his sister either.

It would be far easier to simply go to an authoritative figure that would agree to Sokka's plans. Someone that did, regardless of his own station, take Sokka's ideas serious.

And it would just so happened that Sokka personally knew the most authoritative bender on the planet. Now, Fire Nation might not officially recognize the Avatar as such, but Zuko had experienced Aang's true power first hand. And, hard to read as this calmer, more complacent Zuko was, there was no doubt that he held a form of respect for Aang.

With a sigh, Sokka turned and nudged the drooping form half propped up against the tank's traction tires. "Zuko, you awake?" he asked, knowing full the other was not.

But it did the job; the older boy twitched violently once, then started rubbing at his eyes with an accompanying sound that might have been 'sure'.

"How about we escape together. You and I. We can go find the others, and I'll put in a good word for you too, this time."

The scarred boy's single brow furrowed while the information turned a slow cycle through his sleep-addled mind. Then, his face broke out in a wide smile. "Wow! Do you really mean that?"

Sokka offered his own lopsided grin. "Definitely. Toph was all for it anyway, and I think Aang just didn't want to upset my sister. How about it, are you ready to become the Avatar's fire bending teacher?"

Oddly, Zuko's expression stoned over. "Are you going to make me say it?" The fire-bender growled, like Sokka was asking him to eat live scorpidillo's. "Very well. I can't…"

Zuko winced and ducked when the tank's hatch noisily swung open. But it was not Azula that had got the jump on them, and both boys breathed a sigh of relief. Mai looked down her nose at the both of them. "In spirit's name, Zuko. Have some discretion? Or do you actually expect me to tell your sister I don't know you've been feeding the savage after this?"

Zuko stood, brushed himself off resignedly. "What is she going to do?"

Mai shrugged. "The princess has a brilliant plan to lure out the Avatar." At the boys' silent prompting, the noble-woman continued, a dry note entering her voice. "The good news is it does not involve roasting this dear savage alive."

0000~Z~0000

Mai did always have her way with understatement, Zuko considered. "This is wrong, sis. You know that. These people are non-combatants. You cannot do this."

Reclined behind the dining table, Azula sipped at her fire wine. It was past midnight. His sister was a minor. Ridiculously, Zuko considered she should be in bed—definitely not sipping alcohol while trying to look clever. Definitely not planning a massacre.

The princess just tossed a strand of hair back over the shoulder, casting his objections aside in that same gesture. "I can, and I will. You seem to forget who is in charge here. Moreover, I should! What do you do with a dog that disobeys? You whip it, Zuzu."

"These are not dogs, these are people. And they did nothing." Zuko planted his hands on the table for emphasis, towering over his little sister; hating her, once again. She really was mean. Nasty. Evil…

Quick as a viper-snake, the princess stood, eyes only inches from his, as she spat. "Not them, you dum-dum! The Avatar!"

Zuko took an involuntary step back, wondering if his own eyes had ever been filled by this much fanaticism. No; he hoped not. Because right now, his sister might act in control, but Zuko thought she looked rather unbalanced. He thought he understood what drove this girl, though. Time to try a different tack. "Sis, look. I'm sure we can get the Avatar. Even if he's been slowed down, once we head for home, he is bound to come to his friend's rescue. There's no need to involve innocent people…"

Tossing her head back, Azula laughed; shrill and long. She sat back down, scraping her chair loudly across the floor. She then retrieved her tipped-over glass and treated herself to a refill. "People? Hardly! I've taken a look at that village and it's pathetic, how they live! Hardly above animals; I will be doing them a service by putting them out of their misery."

He was doing little good, Zuko realized. He never had been able to convince his sister of anything before anyway. And, there was more to worry about, it seemed. "Where is everyone?"

Azula shrugged, all thin shoulders veiled in red silk. Feigned innocence, for she was a killer at heart. "Jumping to do my bidding I suppose."

She was delaying him; holding him back. Zuko growled at his sister, and harked his way up the ladder, out the hatch. He heard her yell, "Zuzu, if you're going out there you'd better pull your weight," and chose not to dwell on what she thought he was supposed to do.

Once out in the still-ark air, he glanced around a camp that was within the turmoil of its soldiers moving out - all of the soldiers, marching out in orderly lines. Mai was long gone, and so was Tai Lee… And what exactly had Azula ordered the two girls to do? Probably the kind of thing that might even burden his sister's non-existent conscious. Dear spirits, he had to stop them!

Sokka was still in his usual spot next to the tank, but on his feet and alert. Zuko dropped himself down, informing the water tribesman: "Change of plan. Leave now. Alone."

"Why? What's happening?"

"Nothing." Zuko claimed, already striding away. "If I can help it."

0000~S~0000

"_Nothing, if I can help it."_

And if Sokka didn't recognize stupidity in the brewing right there, he'd eat his Boomerang. - Proverbially of course. Azula had hidden it somewhere…

Also, escape? Right now? Sokka just wasn't ready. Oh, sure, the camp was starting to look empty enough; with all the soldiers hurrying off somewhere, and not even a guard returning to watch him. But his beautiful, pretty little plans would all fall to dust if Sokka left now.

The young warrior was still trying to come up with viable alternatives when the tank's hatch banged open once more. He heard her more then saw her, with the little light left from the moon itself. Her silhouette stuck out against the sky as she stepped out from the metal shell, but Sokka knew her well enough to know her by that silhouette now. "Azula, what are you up to…?"

She slid down without looking up, one hand adjusting a strap on her chest guard. The armor was only half-donned, and the girl did seem in a hurry. But, surprisingly enough, she took the time to answer him. "What does it look like? I have decided to flush your lazy Avatar-friend out by executing a few faceless peasants."

That stopped Sokka short. Well, alright; Sokka was suddenly very thankful that Zuko had set out to do _something incredibly stupid. _Then again, what could Zuko do, exactly? Probably quite a lot. As long as his little sister didn't show up. Zuko had been reasonably clear on that much before: he did not think he could take her in a fight.

Slowing down the crazy little sister it was then, for Sokka. "You need your whole army to kill a few peasants now?"

She glanced at him, still moving forward, but talking. "No, actually, I was thinking I'd lock the whole bunch up in their village and burn the place. I'll need my army to make sure no one escapes."

Sokka tried not to blanch. Azula was still messing with a shoulder strap, so she probably completely missed him failing at that. still, he knew what—and what this girl was, of course. But looking at her, even in the dark while she was struggling with too-thick armor, it was easy to forget. Sokka swallowed twice, then spoke the first words that came to mind anyway. "Do you know, the last time someone killed someone in front of Aang, he sunk your entire fleet?"

That person had been his dear Yue, but that hardly mattered now. Perhaps Azula could be reasoned with. _Oh, get real Sokka!_ No; but failing that, perhaps the princess could be diverted…

"Do you honestly think it is a good idea to get him angry? Aang is an agreeable character, usually, I know. But when he lights up, he. IS. SCARY!" Sokka made an expression at that, doing an angry Aang face, and the princess laughed.

It had been little more than a dismissive chuckle, but she was listening. Azula was listening. Her feet had stopped moving. Sokka launched into full anecdote mode, telling tales and stories about their travels and making funny faces and as much gestures as his bound hands allowed.

**0000**

**That's all for now. don't forget to review! Reviews lead to happy writer, happy writer lead to lots of writing, lotsa writing leads to fast updates!**


	18. Chapter 18

Special thanks to Gift Of Dragons for Beta'ing!

0000~Z~0000

Zuko reached the town just as the first soldiers had started banging on doors, rounding up citizens. He cursed, and made his way to the center of town, where Mai, Ty Lee and the Field Commander stood conversing quietly. They were outside the largest building in the square, and seemed to be discussing the best way to board the place up. A pair of soldiers was in the act of shoving the first family inside when Zuko got bodily in the way.

" ." _Absolutely not_, the Fire Prince thought angrily as he shoved a soldier out of the way and took a disheveled and scared looking woman by the arm, dragging her outside again. Her family members followed in that confused, bewildered way men could have when caught completely off guard. Pleased at the small victory, Zuko guided the group to the center of the clearing, but then did a double take as he realized all the soldiers, Mai and Ty Lee included, where staring at him.

"Change of orders…?" he improvised."Azula said round them all up outside."

Both Mai and Ty Lee gave him an odd look, but only the Field Commander - a fire-bender captain named Bozo or something - took Zuko's words into question. "Did she now?" he remarked, eyes shining with sly speculation. "What an odd thing to happen."

Zuko just shrugged vaguely, trying to come up with a step two for his plan. At least the soldiers fell in line easily enough, adding their villager-captives to the group in the clearing.

Ty Lee, finally, took the initiative, in her usual ditzy and useless way. "Hi," the little acrobat-girl cart-wheeled and somersaulted over to address the gathered people. "Listen I am sorry about this, but it's really sad, but 'Zula just ordered us to kill all of you, and we don't actually want to, but we have to do what she says so…" She trailed off arms spread wide and a shake of the head, a sad smile on her face. "Please forgive us..?"

The people just started, then turned expectant faces towards Zuko, Mai and the Captain, as if hoping for clarification. Well, Zuko could provide that. In what he considered a stroke of brilliance, he jumped up a fence behind the little airhead with a hard scowl. "Translation: Fire Nation psychopaths about to kill you all." the fires the banished prince called to his palms were weak and pathetic, yet enough to put fire to a barn wall behind them. "Run."

There was a collective gasp, and the villagers did start running. But they stopped again when they found their exit paths blocked. Like a wave turned by the dockside.

If the villagers were confused, that went double for the soldiers and those in command. Mai frowned and sauntered over, and Ty Lee caught Zuko by the arm, hissing angrily: "What are you doing, idiot? Are you trying to get us all killed? You cannot seriously be suggesting Azula revoked _that _order!"

Zuko just grabbed back, arms interlocking like a warrior's handshake: "And you are going to obey those orders, Ty Lee? Is it really worth it – where is your line, girl? When will it become too much, if a massacre is not?"

"I have six sisters." The girl replied darkly. "That's a lot of digits to lose."

He nodded to her, so she would know he understood. Then pushed away, catching Mai's gaze, "What about you?"

"I have a brother; Tom-tom."

"Everyone has something," Zuko growled, sick to his stomach, "this will not save him, merely postpone his fate."

But Mai too shook her head at him, sadly.

_Alone then_; perhaps Zuko should have expected that. Still, it was hard not to feel abandoned. With a quick turn, he marched away from the two, on to where the villagers had ceased their flight, only ten paces away.

They were huddled together by now, scared and confused. Some looked like they wanted to break for it, but all exit ways were still blocked by soldiers, and their scowls and skull helmets did not inspire much confidence in the Earth-town folk. Still, Azula's men were not yet plowing into the un-armed citizens, and so Zuko took his chance, pushing past the bewildered citizens to address the fire-soldiers: "Stand down, let these people pass."

"They will not. I, Captain Ghoza, will only follow my princess."

The field commander- Ghoza, Bozo, whatever –sneered. "Dear _scout_ Zuko, please do not overstep your bounds. You can claim Azula has changed her mind, but I really do not believe you."

It only occurred to Zuko now that, even if Mai nor Ty Lee were not willing to actively help him, he should have been thankful they were not fighting him. The Captain, of course, had no such qualms.

Ah, but standing aside had never been Zuko's forte, and for this he thought violence was _completely_ justified. "I am Prince Zuko, the Fire-Lord's firstborn, and I order you all to stand down." Zuko drew his blades and leveled a sword at the Captain, then swiped it to encompass the rest of the soldiers. "Anyone who wants to question my right to do so I will cut down personally."

There was a murmur amongst the ranks, and Zuko realized that quite a few voices were appreciative: it appeared a few of Azula's men had not been looking forward to slaughtering innocent villagers. And he had just supplied them with a good enough excuse not to have to go through with this excess.

Some armed men even started moving to the side, but Captain Ghoza stopped them with a gesture. Zuko had heard the Captain was not very popular with the men; craven, yet hungry for power and glory he'd heard whispered. And it seemed those traits would come to bearing right now. Ghoza met Zuko's words with a cold, fake grin. "Are you fighting my authority here, _scout_ Zuko? Am I right in believing you've just challenged me to an Agni Kai?"

The ex-prince blinked, more than surprised. There was only one reason Zuko could imagine why the Captain would dare such a challenge. That, far more than the actual challenge, put a chill down his spine.

True; his fire-bending was failing him. Pathetic and weak; leaving him when he needed it most. And that fact was damn near scaring him out of his mind. Still, he had tried to at least keep his ailment from becoming general knowledge. Sadly, it seemed he had failed there too. Perhaps some credits should go to this Captain for skills in observation. Or perhaps Azula had let it slip. The princess had insinuated too much for Zuko to even doubt she had already figured it out.

But if this Captain though he could defeat the ex-prince just because Zuko's bending was bust, the man truly was a fool.

_Agni Kai…?_

-"Well, I hadn't really considered it like that. But if that is your preference, then I suppose I am."

That sneer opened up into an open-mouthed bearing of teeth. "Oh, please. Everyone knows you do not even practice your bending any more. What do you think you can do?"

"Oh, I'll bet you I do not even need fire-bending to take you down, Captain." If that was a boast, it seemed a safe one. Zuko had seen the Captain's practice bouts. He really wasn't that special.

Only a single doubt fluttered into that over-bearing Captain's mind though: "No weapons allowed, though."

And it was the wrong one. Zuko snorted. "Oh, no weapons, save your fire-bending; I do know the rules Captain. I have been in Agni Kai before."

Ghoza nodded with greedy eyes.

0000~S~0000

Sokka paced to the end of his chain, turned and strode again. He'd been doing so well! Azula had been listening, spirits be damned! More than that; even when Sokka had found himself pressured to the subject, Azula seemed right near agreeing with his arguments.

She had agreed with a nod and a smile, yet started to move towards that last komodo-rhino nonetheless.

"_You don't want to do this, Princess…"Sokka had near-pleaded._

"_Oh, my dear pet! Even if you were right, I have a reputation to uphold. I have expectations to live up to…" With a shrug and a last half-smile over the shoulder, she had moved away._

_Sokka would have placed himself bodily into the girl's path, but Azula had put herself out of his reach already. "Then what, pray tell, do you think is expected of you, Azula?"_

_If nothing else, the audacity of using her name had stopped the princess's rhino in its tracks, and her scowl really did send shivers down Sokka's back. _

_At his fearful expression, all she had done was laugh though, adding finally: "Ah, little pet. __I h__urt and break, so as for what is expected- only the very worst. But that's okay; I quite enjoy it; pain can be so much fun!"_

Thus Sokka had been left alone, torn between staying and going; escaping and playing prisoner a little while longer. Getting out would be the safe, wise choice. Stay and play this game with Azula would be the bold one.

Yet there was also the third, undeniable choice to consider. Not that Sokka consider himself a hero or a champion of good. Those denominators he considered Aang's, or even Katara's domain.

And yet, if even a morally confused Fire Nation prince knew when to jump into the fires, how could the Southern Water Tribes decline? Oh, but his beautiful, wonderful plan! Sokka hated giving up on it. Yet, by now the sky was clearing to a worrying lighter blue, and birds and creatures were waking. The princess was on her way, and the village was at least an hour's walk off.

In defeat, the young warrior dropped to his haunches with a growl and a rub through his hair, and then let the sound turn to an angry scream as he shook his fists at the sky in frustration. Spirits be damned, it was so terribly unfair!

But he knew what the right choice was, and it was time to move.

Sokka crawled back under the tank, then hurried through the half-loose screws and found himself a coiled spring. In another moment he had the metal uncoiled into a make-shift lock pick he could apply to his manacles. The next part should have been the difficult part; the puzzle as you will. Therefore, the young strategist could not help an annoyed grunt when the lock opened at his third attempt. _Too easy!_

The sound turned into a gasp when the irons fell away though; Sokka had known is arm-guards would be ruined after all the tugging and pulling he had endured at the end of that chain. What he had not expected to see was actual bloodstains. Still, as he removed what was left of his arm-guards all he felt was anger.

The mental note to make sure Katara staved off any chance of infection was nearly academic in its objectiveness. His half-sarcastic snicker was anything but. "Oh, you think this is _funny,_ princess?" Sokka muttered as he grinned wolfishly. One last time, the water-tribe warrior ducked under the tank and pulled out another bolt, leaving the chassis hanging together by little more than friction. "You like hurting people; breaking stuff..?

"I'll _show_ you _breaking_ stuff."

_Wasn't payback a bitch?_ With a last, satisfied nod, Sokka made started off at an easy trot along the tracks the army had left. "Hang on, Jerk-face. The Water-tribe is coming to the rescue."

0000~Z~0000

Keeping the Captain's words in mind, it really was pathetic how long it took. Zuko could only shake his head as two broadly grinning soldiers dragged their commander over to a cot for some much needed first-aid.

There was an awful lot of snickering from the onlookers, and Zuko seriously hoped it wasn't because he had just made a mockery of traditions beating his opponent with fists instead of fire. But relieved looking citizens were allowed passage by waving soldiers. Some soldier even gave warning of the fact that it would be best for the citizens to hide until Azula and her army left the area, though those suggestions were only met by angry shouts from the villagers.

But they went, and finally only Fire Nation men were left, talking quietly about the fight while the town stood smoking.

All it took was a twist to avoid the first fireball, then slide-step back to the other side, evading the next. Then Zuko had ducked, jumped forward, rolled and placed a solid kick into the man's plexus, preventing the captain to draw breath for this next attack. And, as the man's face came down, wide-eyed as the doubled over, Zuko had followed with a simple uppercut to the face.

Captain Ghoza had stood frozen for a moment, and the ex-prince had been worried enough to take a step back and ready another volley of attacks.

And then the Captain had simply crumpled to the floor.

When Zuko had finally dropped his defensive stance to nudge him with a toe, Ghoza had made his first sound since he had had the wind knocked out of him. Yet calling that sound a whimper would still have been giving it too much credit.

Yeah; so Zuko knew he was probably not supposed to gloat.

_Hmm. What would Aang have done?_ Ah, of course. Trying for concerned, the teen called after captain Ghoza as the tottering man was helped onto the nearby pallet. "Sorry about your nose."

That one was not likely to heal very prettily.

Another guffaw of laughter, and when Zuko turned to give a reproachful stare, he found Malkun with his friends, giving him a thumbs-up. The prince scowled anyway, pointing towards the few left-over Earth villagers. "What are those people still doing here? They're supposed to be running for their lives!"

The lot of them disappeared fast enough into the forests after that. But they would likely return at the nearest opportunity. And if Zuko knew his crazy sister, he had to stop that from happening. Torching the village was probably not in the good guy category, but it seemed his best bet, and it kept the men too busy to ask question.

For a while at least.

They were just about done when Azula showed up, an expression close to surprise on her face as she sat upon her komodo-rhino and surveyed the damage.

For a moment, Zuko considered making a case for the fact this fire was more likely to draw out the Avatar then a mountain of rotting corpses. Then he saw an almost nervous quirk on his sister's lips, and decided it would be to no avail. She was going to kill him.

**0000~0000**

**Oh noes! Poor Zuko went and did some good ;) How is he going to survive that one? R&R! I wuf you guys!**


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